Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday described his decision to pick Alhaji 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 said: “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.

Asked 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. NigerianEntertainment Coverage

“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.”

The relationship between the two statesmen had become strained as a result of political differences during their second term in office between 2003 and 2007.

It was not the first time Obasanjo would make such a scathing remark about his former deputy.

In June 2022, he 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) in Abeokuta, Ogun State 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 said.

“But because it was a genuine mistake, God saved me,” he added.

Last week, the two statesmen engaged each other in verbal war over 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.

At the Charly Boy event, Obasanjo 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. NigerianEntertainment Coverage

“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.

He also addressed the long-running controversy surrounding his roots, saying that his parents hailed from Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

“I still know our family house there,” he said.

Numbered among the prominent figures at the occasion were former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku; presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi; business mogul Leo Stan Ekeh; book reviewer Dr Austin Tam-George; and veteran broadcaster Bisi Olatilo, among others. (The Nation)