PREACHERS beware of dabbling into politics. Be cautious and alert to the risks in partisan politics because you may burn your fingers, and irreparably damage your pastoral calling, if indeed, you were called to that unique office in the first place. And this is why: “Politics and the Pulpit are terms that have little agreement”. That was the timeless advice by Edmund Burke, the famous Anglo-Irish statesman, journalist, literary critic and parliamentary orator on his reflections on the Revolutions in France (1789-1794).
According to him, “no sound ought to be heard in the church but the healing voice of Christian charity. The cause of civil liberty and civil government gains as little as that of religion by this confusion of duties…and those who quit their proper character to assume what does not belong to them are, for the greater part, ignorant both of the character they leave and they character they assume”. Burke was possibly the first writer to use the term “political theologian” in English. He used it as a term of opprobrium against dissenting preacher Richard Price and his enthusiasm for the French Revolution.
All over the world, especially in democracies, politics is divisive. But perhaps more than ever, the divisiveness has been much more pronounced now, often pitching preachers against the government in power. Also, a common cause of tension has developed between pastors and their church members. It’s a perception that a pastor should be wary of politics and shouldn’t endorse a particular political position. But, pastor Tunde Bakare, the General Overseer and founder of Citadel Global Community Assembly Church(formerly Latter Rain Assembly Church) seems to have ignored this timely advice.
Since 2011, he has dabbled into politics. He was the presidential running mate to Muhammadu Buhari in that year’s elections. The ticket lost. In 2022, he went for the All Progressives Congress(APC) presidential primaries, and scored zero vote. He mocked the process through which Tinubu emerged as APC candidate. Bakare, almost always, courts controversies. If there’s none, he creates one. He’s not afraid to walk alone in the dark. He ruffles feathers. From his hot, pulpit pounding sermons, he attacks perceived enemies. His scathing, offensive comments against President Bola Tinubu are well documented. Sometimes such comments come with outlandish allegations, without proof. However, it must be said that pastor Bakare has enough religious savvy to get on a national stage and enough outrageous proclamations as well to keep blowing his credibility and consistency outside his religious realm. No one will deny that Bakare has a talent for gaining attention resulting in social good through his ministry, but at the same time, his political divisiveness and cynicism outside his spiritual audience have cast a blanket of suspicion on his calling as a pastor with unique gift.
Until last week, President Tinubu was pastor Bakare’s Number One ‘public enemy’, followed by the current National Assembly, led by Sen. Godswill Akpabio. No harsh words, invectives were spared by him in disparaging the president and the lawmakers. Let’s go back in time. Two days to the inauguration of Tinubu as president-elect on May 29, 2023, Bakare vowed never to call Tinubu “my president. I will address him as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”. He alleged, among other things, that President Tinubu was a recipient of a series of electoral malpractice during that presidential election, adding the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) made a mess of the process.
On that score, pastor Bakare was right. He was echoing the findings of election observers, that the 2023 presidential poll that produced Tinubu as president was flawed in all respects. In fact, as events in the last two years have shown, the deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded. Also, in his ‘State of the Nation’ Easter Sermon two months ago, Bakare delivered a damning assessment of Tinubu presidency, saying under his watch, Nigeria has descended into tyranny. He blamed the myriad of challenges facing the country on the loss of trust in the capacity of the administration to guarantee security across the country. He also claimed, without proof, that the the present situation in the country was a desperate attempt at ‘state capture’. He called the Emergency Rule in Rivers state a “theatre of the absurd”, and the present National Assembly as the “most spineless”, “compromised, and ineffective” in Nigeria’s democratic history. According to him, the leadership of the National Assembly has traded its independence for sycophancy, and has become a “haven of legislative rascality”, rubber stamping everything sent to it through the influence of the president.
The presidency forcefully reacted, calling Bakare a sore loser and other unprintable names, just as the National Assembly said he has repeatedly used his church as a platform to undermine public trust in the governance of the country. It was, therefore, a shock, when last week, pastor Bakare was spotted at the president’s residence in Lagos. The video of the visit which went viral was posted by Mr Bayo Onanuga, the president’s side on Information and Strategy. It was not for nothing.
Though Bakare declined to disclose details of his visit to the president beyond saying that he had a “private conversation with Mr President, and I’m glad he received me well, and I trust that God will help our nation…we have danced around some subjects for too long a time”. I see that visit to Tinubu as a minefield of landmines. It will remain for a long time in the presidential library as ‘exhibit’ against Bakare in the future he opens his mouth against the Tinubu government. Again, that’s why Edmund Burke’s critique that ‘politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement’, will remain timeless, and for preachers like Bakare, it’s an admonition that meddling into politics, where you have little experience apart from the passion that politics excites, will later come to hurt you.
If Bakare is in doubt, he should ask pastor Chris Okotie, Pat Robinson, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network(CBN), among other preachers who abandoned their calling and their flock for politics. Don’t cry for pastor Bakare when the reality hits him. Let him not say he was not forewarned. You can’t mess around with a Tinubu propaganda machine, with less than two years to the next election and remain the same. A political party that hired fake bishops during campaign, doesn’t seem morality in politics, will stop at nothing to frame and discredit a pastor.
As a young Christian many years ago, I learnt from the scripture the uniqueness of the pastoral office, the fivefold ministry gifts in the body of Christ listed in Ephesians 14:11-12, where Apostle Paul wrote, “And he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ”. Through these gifts, God builds up the church, ensuring that every member of the congregation is equipped to do His work.
I have also come to understand that pastoring a church is a unique calling, and stepping into it without being specifically called by God could lead to regrettable extremities. This is why, when those who are not specifically called to that high office take that role, the burdens and challenges of the people they are supposed to counsel weigh heavily on them, causing the pastors to experience similar difficulties church members they were ‘anointed’ to heal their pains. You can now see why many ‘men of God are going astray, some becoming victims of the very situation they tried to resolve.