Buhari’s Critics Will Realise How Much They’ve Been Unfair To President By 2023 When I Document My Experience —Aide, Femi Adesina
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has said Nigerians have been unfair to his principal, Muhammadu Buhari by labelling him a religious bigot.
With 14 months to the end of Buhari’s administration, the presidential spokesperson revealed his desire to document his experiences with the President so many critics could realise how much they had been unfair to his principal.
“As the administration winds down (in 14 months) I pray for grace to be able to document my experiences with this President. People would then realize how unfair they’ve been to him. A man more sinned against, rather than sinning,” he said.
Adesina disclosed this in an article titled, ‘Buhari, Osinbajo and the bigotry question’, and shared it on his official Facebook page on Thursday.
Adesina added that the President should never be regarded as a religious bigot.
He said, “Have you ever met a religious bigot before? Pray that you don’t. It’s not an interesting experience, irrespective of the faith the bigot professes. A bigot is obstinately or unreasonably attached to a belief, opinion, and is prejudiced against or antagonistic towards a person or people who don’t share what he believes.
“I ask again: have you met a religious bigot before? Pray that you don’t. And if you unfortunately do, don’t argue, don’t remonstrate with such person. Just show a clean pair of heels.
“President Muhammadu Buhari is a man that had been serially de-marketed, flagellated and excoriated as a religious bigot. It was a narrative deliberately concocted and conjured by those who were afraid of the probity and integrity he could bring into public office. They tarred him with the brush of bigotry, which hindered the man from attaining the presidency for a long while.
“But every lie has an expiry date. A time came when the public no longer bought the jejune argument. Pro-Buhari forces fought back vigorously. One of them was eminent virologist, Prof Tam David-West (God rest his soul). He wrote a book with the title ‘16 Sins of Muhammadu Buhari,’ in which he debunked the lies being told against the former military head of state. One of them was the allegation of being a religious bigot.
“A larger number of Nigerians got to understand that the bigotry tag was fake, false, an attempt to give the dog a bad name, in order to hang it. Muhammadu Buhari coasted to office as President in 2015, after three earlier trials. But there is still a remnant that maintains its entrenched position. And they are the ones who look down on us Christians, for going to “work with a Fulani Muslim, a jihadist who does not want to see Christians at all.” True? False.
“Who else can you trust more than the man (or woman) that cooks or serves your meal? Possibly nobody. Buhari has Christian cooks, male and female.
And who can you also trust more than the man that drives you? He can decide to do bad, bad things to you. Buhari has Christian drivers.”
He added, “When the Foursquare Gospel Church turned 60 years in Nigeria. I told the President, and he gladly agreed to meet with the leadership. He did. Bigot? Please tell me another story. The Vice President survived an helicopter crash in 2019. The President publicly rejoiced with him, and then at the next Federal Executive Council meeting, he congratulated the VP again. Jocularly, he said: “I can imagine that when the chopper crashed with a bang, VP as a pastor must have shouted, Jesus!Jesus! Jesus! And fortunately, Jesus was not far away, so He saved him.”
“We all laughed. But one instructive lesson. Bigots don’t like Jesus. They never want to hear His name, or attribute anything miraculous to Him. Buhari, a bigot? I beg, comot for road, make I pass.
“It is said that as a military commander, he gave opportunity for Muslim soldiers to observe the jumat on Fridays, and Christian soldiers were allowed to go to church on Sundays. A bigot would allow Muslims, and pretend that Christians didn’t exist.”