Pastor Tunde Bakare, a former running mate to late President Muhammadu Buhari, has shared a surprising moment he had with the former leader.
Speaking during a TV interview, Pastor Bakare recalled how Buhari, after a long and tiring day of campaigning in Kaduna back in 2011, suddenly said “Jesus Christ of Nazareth” out loud as they both got out of their campaign vehicle.
Bakare, who at the time was Buhari’s vice-presidential candidate under the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), said he was shocked to hear such words from a Muslim. He immediately asked Buhari why he used the name.
In response, Buhari told him, “You don’t have a monopoly of Jesus Christ. I am thanking God.” The reply surprised Bakare even more.
According to the pastor, the moment made him realize that Buhari was not the religious extremist many people thought he was. Instead, he described the late president as someone who respected other people’s faith.
Bakare and Buhari contested together in the 2011 presidential election. Though they lost that election, their political alliance eventually helped form the All Progressives Congress (APC), the party that brought Buhari to power in 2015 and again in 2019.