Citadel School of Govt: Our mission is to raise nation builders – Pastor Bakare

By Dapo Akinrefon & Henry Obetta

The Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church (formerly known as Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, said his decision to set up a school of government was to raise nation builders in Nigeria, who will champion the cutting-edge philosophy of governance across diverse spheres of public leadership.
Bakare spoke at the official opening of the Citadel School of Government and onboarding of the pioneer Class of Advanced Diploma in Public Leadership and Statecraft in partnership with the University of Lagos Business School, ULBS, held in Lagos.
In his opening speech, Bakare, who is Founder and Board Chairman of Citadel School of Government, explained that his decision to set up the school was to provide solutions to the developmental problems confronting Nigeria.
The fiery televangelist said, “It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to the Official Opening of the Citadel School of Government. This is a momentous occasion, the significance of which words cannot quantify. Without a doubt, the seed we are planting here today will blossom into a mighty forest, whose roots will take hold in our nation and whose branches will stretch across the earth, bearing in its fruit the fragrance of transformative governance.
“It is no coincidence that the official inauguration of this institution, Citadel School of Government, also marks the induction of the Pioneer Class of our flagship programme, the Advanced Diploma in Public Leadership and Statecraft, which we are offering in partnership with Nigeria’s foremost university, the University of Lagos, and specifically, Nigeria’s business school of repute, the University of Lagos Business School.
“Let me, at this juncture, offer a heartfelt Founder’s Congratulations to the seventy who have made history by becoming the first set of participants for the Advanced Diploma in Public Leadership and Statecraft. With your admission into this programme, I am confident that Nigeria is about to experience a new wave of transformative leadership across sectors. With your induction into this programme, I have no doubt that a new breed without greed, a radical opposition to corruption, and a cohort of changemakers is about to be equipped for high visibility and maximum impact. With the strategic deployment that will result from your participation in and conclusion of this programme, I am convinced that the first fruit of a unique breed is about to emerge to begin to lead the change Nigeria needs at all levels, from the local to the subnational to the national to the continental to the global.
“Expectedly, this initiative has elicited curiosity among several stakeholders in the Nigerian state, with many inquiring of me the rationale behind it. Some have asked if this is geared towards a political objective. Some have asked if we are about to start a university. Some, for want of a suitable categorisation box, simply ask, “What is Bakare up to again?”
While I am glad that those who are in doubt are asking questions, I am conscious of the fact that not everyone has access to me or my staff to seek answers to these and other questions. I am also mindful that though aspects of the answers to these questions are in the public space, from the website of the Citadel School of Government to speeches I have made in recent times, including at the just concluded Facilitators Workshop held on Thursday, August 28, 2025, at the Lecture Hall of the Citadel School of Government, this occasion provides an added opportunity to write the vision and make it plain that he may run who reads it. “
In addition, Bakare said: “At the Citadel School of Government, we have a bold and clear vision to become a globally renowned institution facilitating the emergence of cutting-edge nations, beginning with Nigeria. These are nations with agile and responsive governments whose impact is closely felt by the people; nations that adopt, adapt and author technological innovations; nations where knowledge and wisdom guide decisions, and where service is at the heart of leadership; nations whose leaders and people think globally while acting locally.
By taking this initial step, we are on course to bridge the leadership gap in public sector governance in Nigeria, Africa and, by extension, across the globe.
“We will do this by providing current public sector leaders with exposure to cutting-edge tools for continuous development, and by facilitating the mobility of quality leadership from the private to the public sector.
Furthermore, by partnering with our nation’s foremost university, the University of Lagos, we hope to bridge the gap between the ivory tower and the policy roundtable through the unhindered flow of ideas, policies, strategies and solutions across both sectors.
The pioneer class of the Advanced Diploma in Public Leadership and Statecraft are an integral part of this vision. Our mission is to raise nation builders like you—leaders grounded in values and equipped with the competencies to champion the cutting-edge philosophy of governance across diverse spheres of public leadership.”
Also speaking, former Minister of Education, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, maintained that leadership remains the bane of Africa’s development but was quick to add that the continent has no business with failure.
The former Minister also expressed worry that corruption has eaten deep into the country’s struggling institutions, whether private sector, civil society, public sector.
Ezekwrsili, who said Nigeria has no business to fail, added that failure is “not our destiny.”
She said: “When I see people who are comfortable with the failures of our country, I really know that there is no meeting point between those people and I. And it doesn’t come from a place of arrogance. It just comes from a place of knowing how not to waste my heart.
“If you have come to the Citadel School of Governance, it cannot be because Bakare established it; you want to be part of it, that’s nonsense. You have done this, not because of Pastor Bakare. You do this because you understand the urgency of this country, this continent, changing these laggards that have no basis.
“We have no business to fail. Failure is not our destiny. And so if you decided that you’re going to join with him, whether as a facilitator or as an institution, you should be paying him. Because the truth is that all existing institutions in our country, whether private sector, civil society, public sector, are struggling.
“Corruption is corrosive. It corrodes. It just eats up the society. It starts gently, and then you don’t do anything about it. It becomes a monster. We, in fact, equated corruption with cancer. That’s why we talk about the cancer of corruption. And this carried on and even pretending they were not seeing what was going on, until it manifested and became systemic corruption. And then, before we knew it became democratised.
“How else can we survive? If you can’t beat them, join them. Join who? You are derailing generations for pottage. That’s where we connect, so when he (Bakare) told me he would be going in this direction, he has been working on these things for many decades. You can see from his age. He’s been restless about building people, building an army of people.
“I recalled the meeting you (Bakare) called for in 2010. I had to come down from Washington to attend the meeting. Something is fundamentally wrong, something is broken across the country, from whatever affinity you come, it doesn’t matter. We are held together by a common vision that we have what it takes to get this country working.
“And it was a decent conversation that could have been joined, just moved things forward, but the underbelly of the disaster that has been following our country and continent is that, no matter how competent you are, no matter how careful you are, if you are lacking in character, you won’t progress.”
While charging the new students of the school to leave above board, she said: “So hopefully, you are not coming to collect Advanced Diploma in Policy only to go and snatch invoices and do exactly the same thing that has destroyed our society. I can’t imagine you going through this programme only to become what you have despised. So the quality of the faculty will be great.
“I taught the last class of 2025. There are some 200-plus of them that will graduate in October. We’ve already graduated 748 from this program over the past five years that we started. I want many more schools across our continent.
“Leadership is the bane of Africa’s development. For years, decades, we will say everything is there but leadership and we just kept singing it as it goes but did nothing about it.”

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