Pastor Tunde Bakare, the presiding overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, has criticised the political slogan “Emi lo kan”, describing it as a politics of entitlement.
Emi lo kan, meaning “it is my turn”, was popularised by the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu ahead of the ruling party’s presidential primaries in 2022.
Seeking supporters in Ogun state, the former governor of Lagos state said it was his turn to become the president of Nigeria due to his sacrifice for the country and his political protegees who are now in government.
The slogan has since been popularised following Tinubu’s victory, with a number of his followers using it as a prayer point.
But in a national broadcast in his church, Bakare, a former presidential aspirant on the platform of APC, said the slogan is not “with the intent to serve.”
“Politics of entitlement also manifests as perennial candidacy, not with the intent to serve, but to gratify long 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 and 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.”
