Bakare blasts Tinubu, says ‘emi lo kan’ politics breeds dictatorship, imperial president 

The Presiding Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, in an innuendo on Sunday, blasted the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the author of ‘emi lo kan’ in Nigerian politics, noting that politicians who practice such are intolerant.

Bakare, in a state of the nation broadcast in the church auditorium in Ikeja, Lagos, on Sunday, titled ‘Bridging The Gap Between Politics and Governance,’ pointed out that  politics of division, deception, manipulation, merchandise, exploitation, betrayal, slander, intimidation, elimination, and entitlement as bad forms of politics.

Bakare cautioned that ‘emi lo kan’ politics only aims to gratify long personal ambitions.

Bakare declared: “This ’emi lo kan’ politics that insists on one’s turn, even if circumstances do not align, is bad. Politics of entitlement also manifests as perennial candidacy, not with the intent to serve but to gratify long time personal ambitions.

“It could also manifest as insistence on a given political office as a reward for what one considers a lifetime of sacrifice to the nation.

“Politicians with a sense of entitlement evade political debates; they do not consider it imperative to communicate with the electorate.

“Entitlement politics will breed an imperial presidency that is distant from the people and has no sense of responsibility or accountability to the people. Such imperial governance will slide towards dictatorship and will be intolerant of dissent.

“Entitlement politicians set low performance benchmarks for themselves when they secure power and are content with projecting molehills as mountains of achievement.”

The APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, introduced ’emi lo kan’, meaning ‘it is my turn’ in Yoruba language into Nigerian politics during his consultation with APC stakeholders in Abeokuta, Ogun State, for support before the APC presidential primary in June 2022 in Abuja. Tinubu bitterly complained of his exclusion from the APC government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, after, as he said, he had helped Buhari to become President in 2015. He insisted that it is his turn, as the language applies,  and eventually got the APC presidential ticket. Bakare has, however, faulted that belief.