The Senior Pastor of the Citadel Global Community Church formerly Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has revealed how Oby Ezekwesili would have been Buhari’s running mate in 2011 but turned down the offer.
He stated this in an interview with select journalists at his Lagos office as part of activities marking his 66th birthday.
Bakare was speaking on how he came to become Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).
He said he was in Spain when Buhari called him to suggest a running mate from the South.
The vocal cleric said that he had initially suggested Jimi Agbaje but he was dropped before he approached Pastor Enoch Adeboye of The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) who suggested Oby Ezekwesili.
According to Bakare, Ezekwesili turned down the office since she was then at the World Bank.
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Recounting how it all happened, Bakare said, “At SNG (Save Nigeria Group), we had engaged the political class, we had engaged former President Goodluck Jonathan, Atiku Abubakar and we said, you (Buhari) lost the election in 2003, in 2007, and you are about to lose 2011 because there was no balance of terror and I don’t mean violence.
“We said to him that you don’t really have that inroad to the South West. The way Nigeria is structured, you cannot win the presidential election except there is a handshake between the north and the south, it won’t happen.
“I was in Spain when the call came that I should get them a vice-presidential candidate. I was so excited and I gave them Jimi Agbaje. I took him to Abuja to meet with them and they met a couple of times, but something happened, they dropped him.
“They called me again, I went to Pastor Adeboye to give me Oby Ezekwesili and I called her to run with President Buhari but she refused.
“But Pastor Adeboye told me he (Buhari) would need a strong Christian to be his running mate. I said to him that Oby is strong too; he said no, that she must not leave certainty for uncertainty because she was working at the World Bank then.”
Bakare said he then sent for former Ekiti State Governor and current Minister of Trade and Industry, Niyi Adebayo, that he would like him to take the opportunity.
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He continued, “Before this time, Bola Tinubu had sent Lai Mohammed to me that I should persuade Buhari to run on the platform of Action Congress before it became Action Congress of Nigeria.
“But while we went to meet Buhari, we asked who will be his running mate, he said the greatest grassroots mobiliser in the south-west. I said I can’t broker a Muslim-Muslim ticket, so we left that.
“I sent Ife Oyedele to go to the current vice-president (Osinbajo) that he should come and run with Buhari in 2011.
“When all that failed, those I assembled to work with me as arrowheads, Donald Duke, El-Rufai, Oby Ezekwesili, Jimi Lawal, Fola Adeola, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, we are determined to bring good governance to our nation, not just activism.
“We were meeting regularly but we ended the meeting because we had no candidate.”
Bakare added, “On January 15, 2011, at 12 noon, my phone rang, it was President Muhammadu Buhari. He said, Pastor, I had prayed the way I know how to pray, and I want you to pray also, I want you to be my running mate.
“I said to him, thank you but no thanks because I had given my words to those arrowheads, those I mentioned, that I will never seek an elective office or join a political party.
“He said I should pray about it and call me back in seven hours, I didn’t call him. I called Pastor Adeboye and informed him, he said that was it and that he already said Buhari needs a strong Christian and that I am the man and I must go there.
“I consulted across the board and I signed on at the last day to become his running mate. Of course, we didn’t win the election.”
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