- He said this in reaction to the popular notion that the former president was a bigot, regional chauvinist and religious extremist
The Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church (CGCC), Pastor Tunde Bakare, has said the late former President Muhammadu was a liberal and open-minded character whose life was not shaped by tribal and religious sentiment.
He said this in reaction to the popular notion that the former president was a bigot, regional chauvinist and religious extremist.
Bakare was a long-standing associate of Buhari and was his running mate in the 2011 presidential election.
He was also one of the many politicians who bought the All Progressives Congress, APC, nomination form for the 2023 presidential election.
Speaking during an interview on Monday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today, Bakare said, contrary to public perception, Buhari was far from being a religious fundamentalist, contrary to accusations.
Bakare said that most of Buhari’s domestic staff were Christians and that the former head of state never kept away from praying in the name of Jesus, as Christians do.
He told Channels Television, “I thought he was a religious fundamentalist until I came close.
“After the flag off of our campaign in Kaduna, we rode in the same car, we got home to his place and he staggered, the next word he spoke, God is my witness, was ‘Jesus Christ of Nazareth’.
“And I said, ‘General, what is that?’ He said, ‘You do not have the monopoly of Jesus Christ, I’m thanking God’.
“He just said that, and then I found out that his bodyguards were all Christians. Not only that, his driver of 10 years asked me to pray with him and I said, ‘I don’t pray Islamic prayers, and he said, ‘I’m a Christian, sir.’”
Former President Muhammadu Buhari was confirmed dead in London’s largest and most expensive private clinic on Sunday.
He was said to have passed on while receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness.
His burial is slated for today in Daura, his country home in Katsina State, northwest Nigeria on Tuesday.
A delegation of top government officials are already in London to bring home his remains