I Made Mistake Picking Atiku As Vice President – Obasanjo

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria, News From The State Sunday, June 26th, 2022

(AFICAN EXAMINER) – Another fresh battle seems to be brewing between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, ahead of the 2023 presidential election.

Obasanjo, in a scathing remark yesterday, said he made a mistake picking Atiku as his running mate for the 1999 election.

He said it 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,” Obasanjo told students from select secondary school students that participated in the final of the National Exhibition and Awards organised by Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship (SAGE) in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

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

Although the former president did not mention his former right-hand man by name in the statement, Atiku was his running mate in that election and that of 2003 before their relationship went sour.

Another costly mistake Obasanjo said he made, was not taking seriously a warning he got from an American ambassador that the late military head of state, General Sani Abacha, was planning to arrest him.

His words: “When Abacha wanted to arrest me, I was told by the American ambassador that they would arrest me and that America had asked that I should be given an asylum.

“I said no. It could have been a mistake because I could have lost my life.

“I will say there are many things that could have been a mistake but God saved me from them all.”