Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday described his decision to pick Atiku Abubakar as running mate in the 1999 presidential election as the biggest mistake of his life.
Speaking in Lagos at an event held to unveil maverick musician and activist, Charly Boy’s foundation and his memoir, “999: A Memoir in Tribute to Late Justice Chukwudifu Oputa”, the former president was asked one mistake he made while he was in office as President.
He replied: “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.”
When pressed by Charly Boy whether he was 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 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.”
Only last week, both statesmen engaged each other in verbal altercation following allegation by Obasanjo that Atiku bribed a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, the late Rt. Hon. Ghali Umar Na’Abba with the sum of N5 million to get him impeached as president before the 2003 elections.
Atiku, however, described the allegation as baseless and unfair, especially because the late lawmaker is no longer alive to respond.
The ex-president, had in June 2022, told students from select secondary schools who participated in the final of the National Exhibition and Awards organised by Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship (SAGE), that picking Atiku as his deputy was one of the many genuine mistakes he has made in the course of his public life.
“One of the mistakes I made was picking my Number Two when I wanted to become the president,” he had told the school children in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
