Tunde Bakare clocks 70 years, a Testament of Grace

Pastor Tunde Bakare

Tunde Bakare clocks 70 years, a testament of grace and mercy.

It is not usual for me to dedicate this column to the celebration of individuals. When I do, it’s because the person signposts the ideals that the column represents. I believe in honoring models and heroes when they are still alive to receive honour. So, today, I will be celebrating someone some people call the storm petrel of the Nigerian Pentecostal/charismatic landscape, a great leader and nation-builder par excellence, and an epitome of God’s grace.

Imagine someone you’ve never had a relationship or conversation with coming into your office after a long and obviously tiring day. No prior appointment, but you agreed to see him, nonetheless. He sits before you, and after you ask what the purpose of his visit is, his first words to you are, “Thank you for agreeing to see me sir. I will not waste your time, so I’ll be brief. Let me make it clear upfront that I personally don’t like you. I have heard many uncharitable things that I consider unbecoming of a man of God in relation to how you left your former church. However, I am here because God instructed me to submit to you for ministry mentoring. I have wrestled with God for the past few days, but He has refused to change His mind. So here I am”?

That visitor was me in my first real meeting with Pastor (Dr.) Babatunde Gbolahan Bakare, a.k.a, “Pst B” to many but “Papa Eagle” to my family. I anticipated that he would get angry and ask his aides to throw me out of his office. And I could then tell God, “I told you so!” Rather, he shook his head, obviously wondering what type of person I was, and smiled. Then he took the pains to narrate, with dates, facts and figures, how the events that warranted my prejudice played out, contrary to the things I learnt from another source. That encounter taught me an indelible lesson that has guided my relationship with people ever since. Never base your assessment of anyone on what other people say about them. This lesson has greatly helped me in life, especially when I started experiencing first-hand, what it is to be slandered without cause.

I am glad God did not change His instruction. That meeting in June 1992 marked the beginning of a relationship that has spanned all of 32 meaningfully eventful and impactful, even if sometimes bumpy, years. I could write an entire book on him, each chapter, like an onion, a fresh layer of a dimension of a man to whom one cannot be indifferent. Those who love him love him passionately and those who deride him do so with no less passion. But more than a biography can capture, his life is an open book, and one that, contrary to what many believe, makes for easy reading. Like Nathanael in the Bible, what you see is what you get. As controversial and vociferous as he appears, not only does he have no guile, but he also has no bile.

I have seen various dimensions of this enigma. I have seen the spiritual father who nurtures with a sincere heart, even when he needs to rebuke a protege. I have seen the friend that sticks closer than a brother. I have seen the stentorian disciplinarian with the mien of steel, and I have seen the compassionate ally through the valleys of life’s challenges, one who is never too busy to stand with you in the times of need. I have seen unbridled generosity that gives, sometimes to the point of literally bankrupting himself for others. I have seen the MAN of God in the tears I have seen him shed on many occasions, and I have seen the GOD of the man in his fearless boldness when he needs to take an uncompromising stand on righteousness and national issues. I have listened as he told and still tells stories of his own life with its many checkered chapters of hills and valleys, weaving the tapestry of a narrative that makes you see palpable evidence of how God still rules in the affairs of men.

Above all, through Pst B’s consistent demonstration of unflinching and uncompromising integrity over the years, I have seen and learnt about godly contentment that literally screams from the rooftops, “You can still win by righteousness!”

Working with him in the Save Nigeria Group, I witnessed him reject questionable donations to the cause of the group from people who wanted to identify with the movement for sociopolitical photo ops. In 2012, when the group visited Aso Rock to confer with the President on issues of national importance, Bakare was offered $50,000 as transport assistance for him and his team. He turned it down. When he served as Ogun State and Yoruba Elders delegate to the National Conference in 2014, he refused to collect the N12 million allowance paid to each of the 492 delegates. In his words, “I will not take a penny. It has nothing to do with others; that is by choice… We go with integrity of heart…That does not mean the hearts of others are not pure, but I don’t want anybody to think in any slight manner that the motive is this.”

In the build-up to the 2015 Presidential election, a bag containing $600,000 in cash was brought to him as a way of “appreciating” him for his contribution to national issues. He did not take it.

On his 60th birthday in 2014, a brand-new Rolls Royce with a market value of $485,000 (I checked) was delivered to him as a birthday gift from the Presidency. While rejecting it, he asked those who brought it if is every Nigerian who turns 60 that gets a Rolls Royce as a gift from government.

Until he left office, President Buhari, kept asking what Bakare would want in exchange for all his positive contributions to governance. His answer was, “I just want to remain a friend of the President.” Not done, the Buhari government sent him documents of the allocation of an oil well. He thanked the President and politely declined.

I can confidently summarize Pst B’s life in three epithets. First, he is a quintessential Mentor. When it comes to laying the truth of God’s word on the table, he upholds the integrity of scripture in an uncompromising, even if sometimes riling and controversial manner. You may not like his style, but you cannot fault his premise.

Second, he is a Moulder. A relationship with Pst Bakare is guaranteed, like the rail does to a train, to guide you with specific roadmaps for navigating the sometimes convoluted and daunting challenges of life.

Finally, he is a Model. He is not infallible, but when it comes to integrity and transparency, he is a leader you can follow blindfolded into battle. And this has nothing to do with hero-worshiping, something I, as a rule, don’t do. It’s about confidence in Brand Bakare.

The story of an impactful life can never be fully and completely told in time, because it keeps reverberating and replicating itself over generations.

Pst (Dr) Gbolahan Babatude Bakare, as you join the Septuagenarians’ League today, I honour the grace of God on your life.

Happy Birthday “Papa Eagle”. Agba yin a d’ale o!”