Tunde Bakare Condemns ‘Emi Lokan’ Politics, Says It’ll Breed Dictorship

Emi Lo Kan politics would breed dictatorship in the nation, according to Pastor Tunde Bakare, the presiding overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church. 

This claim was made by Bakare on Sunday at a state of the country address at his church in Ikeja, Lagos.

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The preacher denounced “emi lo kan” politics and characterized those who share this orientation as intolerable. 

Speaking on the theme, ‘Bridging The Gap Between Politics & Governance,’ Bakare highlighted politics of division, deception, manipulation, merchandise, exploitation, betrayal, slander, intimidation, elimination, and entitlement as bad forms of politics.

According to Bakare, a presidential candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2023, “emi lo kan” politics solely seeks to satisfy long-standing personal desires.

Bakare said, “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.”

Emi lo kan in Yoruba simply means “it is my turn.” In the run-up to the APC primary election in June 2022, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the party’s presidential candidate, popularized the phrase in Abeokuta, Ogun State.