Editorial
Succession: Bakare’s Call On Buhari
Last Sunday, the Serving Overseer, Citadel Global Community Church, formerly known as Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, in a nationwide live broadcast in his church, stunned Nigerians when he urged President Muhammadu Buhari, not to leave the choice of his successor in 2023 to chance.
Contrary to the declaration by the President last year that he had no intention of grooming anyone to succeed him in office, Bakare said it was important for President Buhari to influence the choice of who would emerge his successor in 2023 so that his legacies would not be rubbished.
Buhari had last July declared: “Succession is very funny because if I did find anybody, I will create more problems for him or her. Let those who want to be President try as much as I did.”
But Bakare, who had declared his intention to be Nigeria’s 16th President after Buhari, who is number 15, said after a visit earlier last week that there was a risk that a looter might take over if Buhari did not deliberately plan and determine who his successor would be.
Said Bakare, “God is into succession. Anyone in government that does not concern himself about succession is destroying his own legacy because the person coming after you can just mess up everything”.
While The Tide backs the yearning of every well meaning Nigerian to continue to push for a corruption-free nation, we disagree completely with the position of Bakare that the choice of who succeeds the incumbent of an elective office such as the President or any other political office holder should be the prerogative of the incumbent in a democracy.
Every succession in Nigeria’s democracy must be guided by the 1999 Constitution, like those of 1979 and 1989, and the draft Constitution of 1995, which has explicitly provided for a Federal Republic with an Executive President who is elected every four years by universal adult suffrage. Therefore, any other contrary plan would be aimed at destabilising the country’s democracy.
Against this backdrop, we welcome the prompt rejection of Bakare’s advice and the President’s reassurance that he would observe due and legal processes that will bring about the emergence of his successor. At this time when Nigeria is experiencing 21 years of uninterrupted democratic rule, the Buhari administration must take every necessary step to avoid overt and covert actions or inactions that pose threat to the nation’s democracy.
We say so because recent events surrounding the rumoured third term agenda of President Buhari and the failed attempts to push through a bill seeking to provide for a six-year single term for the President, Governors and members of the national and states Houses of Assembly are unhealthy developments at this stage of Nigeria’s democratic life.
Rather than overheat the polity, the President should be urged to focus on changing the narrative of violence, electoral murder, arson, herdsmen attacks and palpable fear now pervading the nation. The tendency of bringing tribe, religion and ethnicity to the front burner in a bid to sway the electorate and buy their sympathy and their votes must be discouraged and erased from our political experience.
Also, while we expect to see a system that will usher in credible, free and fair election, we envisage reversal of the traditional hate messages freely packaged and promoted as party manifestoes. Politicians must stop the use of social media as veritable tool for hate messaging. Indeed, making this the content and hallmark of Nigeria’s democracy should not be allowed to continue.
Moreso, our electoral system is threatened by many other factors. One of such is voter apathy and lack of trust in the electoral process, particularly as electoral officials are often accused of bias. We foresee the waning of citizens’ trust in our democratic institutions and processes, mainly due to reasons relating to poor and non-inclusive governance and electoral corruption. Again, the independence of electoral institutions is in doubt, as many believe that whoever pays the piper dictates the tune. Changing all of this is a herculean task before President Buhari.
Therefore, Bakare and his likes should prescribe and recommend the jettisoning of the ‘winner-takes-all’ politics by encouraging the building of institutions and processes that are vital for multi-party competition and separation of powers.
While integrity in elections is crucial, we call for the strengthening of the rule of law in order to protect the rights of voters and candidates and by so doing contribute to building citizens’ trust in democracy. Elections are a time to renew mandates, consolidate achievements and remove incompetent and ineffective leaders. No single individual can decide or determine the President of the country come 2023. The choice rests with the people.
There are moments in the life of a legislature when plain speaking becomes a public service. Senator Adams Oshiomhole provided such a moment on the floor of the Senate when he accused the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, of manifestly neglecting critical federal arteries in Edo and Delta States, and implored his colleagues to prevail on the Minister to adopt a more equitable and genuinely national approach to road infrastructure delivery. It was blunt, it was uncomfortable, and it was necessary.
The specifics of his complaint deserve restating. Drawing attention to the recent approval of some 20 new road projects despite the parlous state of existing ones, the former Edo State governor lamented that Nigerians cannot travel from Benin to Warri, Benin to Asaba, Benin to Auchi, or Auchi to Okene without encountering severe distress. He alleged a deliberate omission of these corridors from the national budget in the last three years, save for palliative interventions directed by President Bola Tinubu through tax credit arrangements. His question — “What have we done wrong?” — resonates far beyond the chambers of the National Assembly.
We lend our full and unequivocal support to that call. The Auchi-Benin Road, for instance, has been in a deplorable and near-impassable condition for several years, turning what should be a two-hour journey into an all-day ordeal of broken axles, extortionate fares, and despondent commuters. The media have, on multiple occasions, chronicled the suffering of motorists, traders, and students who ply that route. To describe it as a federal road today is to stretch the meaning of the term beyond recognition.
This pattern of sidelining is not confined to Edo or Delta. Even here in Rivers State, the disposition of the Federal Ministry of Works has left much to be desired, particularly along the Eleme axis of the East-West Road. That road, which ought to be a flagship of federal presence in the Niger Delta, has remained in a wretched state for long. Those who use it daily — workers at the Eleme Petrochemical Complex, the two refineries, Onne Port, and the countless ancillary industries — can attest to its deterioration. Work has proceeded in fits and starts without the sustained urgency such a strategic road demands.
The Eleme stretch is not a mere intra-state byway. It is the gateway to the nation’s economic jugular. According to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing’s 2023 Highway Condition Survey, only about 35 per cent of the country’s 36,000 kilometres of federal roads are rated as being in good or fair condition, with the remainder classified as poor or very poor. The East-West Road, conceived in the 1970s to bind the entire Niger Delta, remains unfinished in critical sections more than four decades after. If it had been treated as a priority, the perennial gridlock, carnage, and economic loss on the Eleme-Refinery junction would have long been consigned to history.
The irony is as painful as it is glaring. The Niger Delta remains the goose that lays the golden eggs. Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [NEITI 2023 Oil and Gas Audit] show that the region still accounts for over 78 per cent of Nigeria’s federally collected export earnings and about 65 per cent of total government revenue. The National Bureau of Statistics [NBS Foreign Trade Report Q4 2024] similarly confirms that crude oil continues to dominate export receipts. By every metric of equity and economic logic, a region that sustains the national purse deserves first-rate consideration in the allocation of infrastructure, not afterthoughts and tokenism.
Road infrastructure is not largesse to be dispensed by favour; it is the skeleton upon which commerce, cohesion, and citizenship hang. When contracts are concentrated in one geopolitical zone while other zones are left to contend with craters, it erodes trust in the federation itself. The World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update [June 2023] estimated that poor transport connectivity inflates the cost of moving goods by up to 40 per cent and costs the Nigerian economy an estimated $1.5 billion annually in lost man-hours and vehicle maintenance. If we profess to be one country, then equity must be the compass that guides key institutions before any project is executed. Development must spread round, not pool in one place as though other regions do not matter.
There is also a grave security dimension that can no longer be ignored. The deplorable condition of federal roads has become a veritable enabler of criminality. The NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey reported over 2.5 million incidents of kidnapping-related occurrences nationally, with transport workers identifying bad road spots as prime ambush points. When vehicles are forced to crawl at 10 kilometres per hour through failed sections at Auchi, Sapele Road, or Eleme, they become sitting ducks for armed gangs. Fixing bad roads, therefore, is not merely about convenience; it is about safeguarding lives.
By his intervention, Senator Oshiomhole has hit the nail on the head and reminded Minister Umahi of a fundamental constitutional truth: public office is held in trust. The Ministry of Works is not a personal estate where contracts are awarded according to whim or political convenience. It is a national institution funded by the collective resources of Nigerians, including the oil and gas rents from the very communities whose roads are now neglected. The Minister must demonstrate balance, transparency, and a pan-Nigerian outlook in the distribution of projects that impact the daily existence of citizens. Selective neglect breeds suspicion, and suspicion is corrosive at a time when the nation is preaching unity, oneness, equity, and justice.
Consequently, the National Assembly must go beyond rhetoric and assert its oversight powers with vigour. Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution [as amended] empower the legislature to investigate and expose any maladministration in the execution of federal projects. If an office holder is not acting rightly, it is the duty of the Senate and the House of Representatives to call him to order. Oversight must not be reduced to budget approval ceremonies; it must translate to field verification, public hearings, and insistence that the Federal Character principle, as enshrined in Section 14(3) of the Constitution, reflects in road awards.
Let the Auchi-Okene, Benin-Warri, Benin-Asaba, and Eleme East-West gangways be restored to motorable dignity. Let priority be given to completing existing, economically vital roads before embarking on new ones. If those who, through their resources, sustain the federation are sidelined in the distribution of tangible dividends, it tells poorly of our nationhood. Bad roads must be fixed, and they must be fixed now, with fairness as the guiding standard.
