The General Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has cleared the air on speculations that former President Muhammadu Buhari had a deal to hand over power to him.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, Bakare said there was no written agreement between him and the late president about succeeding him after his tenure ended in 2023.
“There was no written pact between us,” Bakare stated. “He’s late now, and I will never say anything unfair about him. But there was a kind of look — ‘you’re one of those I would love to succeed me’ — and he did his best.”
Bakare, who was Buhari’s running mate in the 2011 presidential election under the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), said Buhari made it clear that he wanted a free and fair process during the APC primaries.
He revealed that Buhari invited all the presidential aspirants in the APC for a meeting and told them he had allowed governors to either run for a second term or choose their successors. In the same way, he said he expected the aspirants to freely decide who should succeed him.
According to Bakare, Buhari said: “I have allowed governors to choose those who will succeed them or go for a second term. I’m asking you today to freely choose the person I desire to succeed me.”
Bakare was among the many aspirants who contested for the APC presidential ticket in 2022, which was eventually won by now-President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.