Aare Remi Bakare, one of the closest politicians to late Senator Buruji Kashamu up to the time he died, a few days ago, was the Head of the Campaign Team of Buruji Kashamu Organisation.
He has now revealed that they both had several conversations towards his last days on earth. Unknown to many, Remi Bakare was one of those Buruji Kashamu gave specific instructions to on what to do before and when he is gone.
Read excerpts from his chat with City People;
“It came as a rude shock, “he replied. “But the fact that he had been warning me of his impending exit reduced the severity of the shock. Kashamu happened to be someone who I would say had an uncommon grace in the sense that he knew he would go and he had informed me days before. So, as a result, it wasn’t much of a shock, though one would have loved to have him around. For the next 3 to 4 decades, but he was prepared for his death.
What does he mean by that, we asked him? “The first time he told me, it was on the phone. He called me and said Remi, look, I am leaving you people. And he said these are the things I want you to do. And he told him to keep quiet. Don’t say such a thing like that again. I told him. Don’t worry, God is in control, bla, bla, bla. And then he called again. He called me several times on his sickbed. Every time he called me while, on the sickbed, he kept saying to me, Look, Remi, I am leaving you. And I kept on assuring him, look, you are not going anywhere. And the last time he called me, he said, Remi, call my lawyer. I want you and my lawyer to go and see OGD, and he gave us instructions on what to do and he said “this is likely going to be the last time that I will be speaking with you. And I said, look…And he said Remi, listen to me and do exactly what I asked you to do. A few hours after, he went into a coma. To God Be The Glory.
Do the messages he sent to OGD have anything to do with what OGD said a few days ago, that he had some messages from Buruji about the party? “Oh, yes. Basically, I happened to be the convener of the messages,” he replied. When it now happened and Buruji had passed on, how did you now feel? “It is natural that you will feel sad,” he said. “When somebody passes on, and even if he is not personally known to you, you will feel naturally sad. But because I have been prepared for it, the shock wasn’t really as intense as it would have been if it had come as a real surprise. But the truth is, I still believe it is a nightmare, wishing one way, or the other, I will still see him. It is sad. I feel so sad. The truth is that since he appointed me the D.G of his Campaign Organisation, we had that bond and we became friends. I doubt if there was any week that we wouldn’t see. He would be the one to call me and say, Remi, where are you? Come. We need to see bla, bla, bla. Almost every weekend, we were always together.
He was a misunderstood man. That is how I will put it. That is what I will say. If anyone had the opportunity to get closer to him, you would discover that he was a man with a real spirit. He was always willing to assist people. He would go to the extra mile to assist people, even people unknown to him. I think he was sent to this world for a purpose. And that propose was to help the downtrodden. And I think he did his best.”
Why does he think Buruji Kashamu was misunderstood?
“Oh, because some people would tell you, he was a controversial man. He is this. He is that. He is not straight forward. But I have a different view. I know him. I have interacted with him sufficiently enough. Believe you me, he is an extremely straight forward person. With Buruji Kashamu, you know where he belongs. If he is not going to do something he would tell you, straight away. He would tell you, no, no, no this is not workable. And if he was going to do something he would tell you, yes, we are going for this and this is how we are going about it. He was a very, very principled person. He hated being cheated. And he hated other people being cheated also. He was a man who could use N1 billion to fight a cause of only N1,000 if he felt somebody being cheated.
Most of the battles he fought were not his battles, they were not for his benefit. So, there were times you start to wonder why was the man fighting this battle or battles? I think that was what he was sent to do on earth”.
