Tunde Bakare, serving overseer of the
Latter Rain Assembly, has revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari chose
him as running mate in 2011, because he wanted a vice-president who can
hold the nation together if he dies in power.
Both men contested
the election under the platform of the then Congress for Progressives
Change (CPC), but lost to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Addressing
his congregants in Ogba, Lagos, last month, Bakare said Buhari rejected
former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s choice of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,
former minister of finance.
BUHARI REJECTED OKONJO-IWEALA
“The
day I signed that paper was the last day of submission. I carried the
candidacy paper with me, but I didn’t fill. The final day, Nasir
el-Rufai (current governor of Kaduna) came to my room, and said Chief
Obasanjo summoned him, that if he could appoint Okonjo-Iweala and drop
Bakare, he (Obasanjo) will support Buhari.
“I was so glad, I was
totally relieved, I took the nomination paper and I said ‘let us go to
General Buhari’s room’. He took us to his bedroom, only three of us
there.
“I said Nasir el-Rufai has just come to tell me good news,
President Obasanjo has spoken to IBB, has also spoken to Dangote, they
will now support you if you can only substitute Ngozi Iweala and let me
go.
“I said, sir, there are five reasons why you must yield to
this, and he kept on looking at me… Look, many of you don’t know this
man… For the ability to keep calm in the midst of storm and not say
anything… to hold your peace, I need some Fulani blood.
“I
said five reasons why you must embrace this: ‘1. Ngozi Iweala is Delta
Igbo; you have solved the problem of south-south and south-east. 2.
She’s a Christian, faith balance. 3. She is a woman, gender balance. 4.
She is a former minister of finance and external affairs, it is called
experience, and currently, her position in the World Bank gives her
global exposure, any of this five, I don’t have’.
“He looked at
me, and said did Obasanjo meet with you or Nasir? I said honourable
minister (el-Rufai), you speak, and he repeated all the things I’ve
said. And he (Buhari) asked him, what do you think he (Obasanjo) is up
to? He said ‘you know our boss, there is something up his sleeve’.
“Then
he turned to me, and said Pastor Bakare I told you I have prayed my own
prayer the way I know how to, and I chose you, if you don’t want, give
me the form, I would look for somebody else.
“It was then Nasir
said, egbon, sign it. In that room ,I signed it, and Nasir seconded it. I
left the place and it was as if a burden lifted.”
Bakare said he heard the voice of God to go ahead, which strengthened him in the days ahead.
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