Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that picking Atiku Abubakar as his running mate in 1999 was one of the mistakes he made in government.
Speaking during a fireside chat with Charles Oputa, popularly known as Charly Boy, at the unveiling of Charly Boy’s Foundation and his memoir, 999: A Memoir in Tribute to Late Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, Obasanjo said if he knew what he later know about Atiku Abubakar, he would not have picked him as his running mate.
“What I have found in my own life is that what could have been all my life, mistakes that could have been fatal, God had taken care of them for me. Mistake when I was in government. The man I picked as my running mate, my number two — if I had known him as I came to know him later, I would not have picked him” he said.
When Charles Oputa pointedly asked him “Are you talking about Atiku?” Obasanjo responded: “My vice president. I don’t know what name you want to give him, but my vice president, I mean that.
“If I had known him as I came to know him later, I would not have picked him. Thank God his actions and reactions did not to overwhelm me or divert my own focus from Nigeria. There is no bitterness, he did things he believed he should do and God did things he needed to do which enabled me to achieve what I was able to achieve”
President Obasanjo spectacularly fell out with his then Vice President, Atiku Abubakar between 2003 and 2007 but appeared to have mended the cracks after they left office
But in the buildup to the 2027 election with Atiku Abubakar on the Ballot, Obasanjo appears to be reopening their old wound, accusing his former running mate of bribing late Speaker Ghali Na Abba to impeach him.
He also accused the South West governors who lost their reelection in 2003 of failing because they teamed up with Atiku.
The former number two man, who is one of the leading candidates in next year’s Presidential election, fired back at Obasanjo, saying while pretending to be rooting for Peter Obi, Presidential Candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), the former President was actually paving a way for his kinsman.
President Obasanjo also rejected suggestions that the conduct of Nigeria troops during the Biafran Civil War amounted to genocide, insisting that the military campaign was aimed at preserving the country’s unity.
“The civil war was traumatic to all Nigerians. It hurt some maybe a little bit harder than others, depending on where, but the civil war was bad for all Nigerians,” he said.
According to him, he took deliberate steps during the war to minimise civilian casualties, citing the recapture of Owerri as an example.
“I did not drop a single bomb inside Owerri, because it would be destructive — it would have killed innocent civilians. I dropped my bombs short of Owerri and beyond Owerri, to warn people that we are coming home,” he said.