Former presidential spokesman Femi Adesina says his ex-principal, former President Muhammadu Buhari, is not a bigot, and those who have characterised the retired military general as religiously biassed do not know him.
Adesina appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today broadcast on Tuesday, shortly after his book was launched in Abuja, the country’s capital.
The launch of the book, ‘Working with Buhari: Reflections of A Special Adviser, Media, and Publicity (2015-2023)’ was graced by his ex-principal (Buhari); President Bola Tinubu; ex-Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, and many other dignitaries.
Speaking on his motivation for writing the book, Adesina said, “A lot of people have different perspectives, different narratives about President Muhammadu Buhari depending on what they think they know and what they think they were exposed to about him. That’s why I thought the book was necessary so that they would know the real and the true Muhammadu Buhari.”
Asked to describe the Buhari he knows, the ex-spokesman said, “The patriot, somebody who loves Nigeria dearly, fair-minded man, those who call him nepotist, those who call him bigot don’t know him, a man who will never seek to impose his own religion on you and will respect your own religion.
“I devoted a good part of my book to that. When my mother died in 2013, I invited him to the Commendation Service in Lagos, he was not President then, he flown all the way from Kaduna to Lagos to attend a Christian programme. He stayed throughout.
“Yet, some people will say he is a religious bigot. A bigot will never enter a worship house that is not his own religion. And they say he is a nepotist, I have never seen it.”