Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has described his decision to pick former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as his running mate in the 1999 presidential election as the greatest mistake he made while in office.
Obasanjo made the remark on Friday during a fireside chat with veteran entertainer and activist Charles Oputa, popularly known as Charly Boy, in Lagos at the unveiling of Charly Boy’s foundation and his memoir, 999: A Memoir in Tribute to Late Justice Chukwudifu Oputa.
A video of the event was posted on iWitnessLive TV’s YouTube channel.
Responding to a question on the biggest mistake he made as president, Obasanjo said no active leader could claim to have served without making mistakes but singled out his choice of vice president as one he would not repeat.
“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,” Obasanjo said.
When Charly Boy asked the former president to name one mistake, Obasanjo 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 Charly Boy sought clarification on whether he was referring to Atiku, Obasanjo replied, “My vice president. I don’t know what name you want to give him, but my vice president, I mean that.”
The former president said that, in retrospect, he would not have chosen Atiku as his deputy.
“Of course, what I know about him later — well, thank God — because God did not allow his actions and reactions to overwhelm me, or to divert my own focus from Nigeria, or to harm Nigeria even,” he said.
“And there’s no bitterness, because he did things he believed he should do, and God did the things God had to do, which enabled me to achieve what I was able to achieve.”
Obasanjo also reflected on the Nigerian Civil War, rejecting suggestions that it amounted to genocide and 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.
Obasanjo and Atiku were elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party in 1999 and served together until 2007.
Their relationship later deteriorated over political disagreements during Obasanjo’s second term in office.
The event was attended by several prominent Nigerians, including former Commonwealth Secretary-General Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 election Peter Obi, businessman Leo Stan Ekeh, book reviewer Dr Austin Tam-George and veteran broadcaster Bisi Olatilo.
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