Pastor Tunde Bakare, Serving Overseer of Citadel Global Community Church, urged the federal government to suspend all non-essential gatherings in vulnerable areas and deploy emergency patrols during his "The Darkness before Dawn" state-of-the-nation address in Lagos on November 30, 2025. He described these as essential temporary measures to prevent mass kidnappings, acknowledging their militaristic appearance but stressing necessity amid terrorists' brazen escalation following U.S. President Donald Trump's redesignation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern over alleged government-tolerated Christian killings.
Bakare lambasted leadership failures for transforming herder-farmer disputes into terrorism, calling on the state to invade armed marauders' camps regardless of ethnicity, apologize to victims with compensation via a national register, and restructure Nigeria for equity including an extra South-East state and South-South integration. He criticized the National Assembly's inaction contrasted with U.S. Congress hearings, advocated nationally-driven state police to avoid gubernatorial overreach, a two-year NYSC with military training, and standardized identity systems.
While acknowledging President Tinubu's security emergency declaration and police recruitment, Bakare pressed for holistic reforms uniting North-South leadership, warning that 2027 politics must not delay confronting the "Nigeria Question" of identity, dignity, and coexistence.