Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday described his decision to pick former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as his running mate in the 1999 presidential election as the biggest mistake of his presidency.
Obasanjo made the remark in Lagos during a fireside conversation with veteran entertainer and activist Charles Oputa, popularly known as Charly Boy, at the public presentation of Charly Boy’s foundation and memoir, 999: A Memoir in Tribute to Late Justice Chukwudifu Oputa.
The former President, who served alongside Atiku between 1999 and 2007, said although every leader makes mistakes in office, his choice of vice president remained the one decision he regretted most, saying he would never have chosen him had he known then what he later discovered about his former deputy.
A video of the event, later published by iWitnessLive TV on YouTube, captured Obasanjo reflecting on his years in office after Charly Boy asked him to identify the greatest mistake he made as president.
“What I have found in my own life is that mistakes that could have been fatal, God had taken care of them for me,” he stated.
Pressed to identify one specific mistake, the former President responded, “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.”
He maintained that with the benefit of hindsight, he would have made a different choice.
“Of course, what I know about him later… I would not have picked him. Thank God that God did not allow his actions and reactions to overwhelm me, divert my focus from Nigeria or harm Nigeria,” he said.
The former President, however, insisted he harboured no personal resentment against Atiku despite their turbulent political relationship.
“There’s no bitterness because he did what he believed he should do, and God did what God had to do, which enabled me to achieve what I was able to achieve,” he added.
Friday’s remarks represent one of the strongest personal assessments the former President has made publicly about his decision to select Atiku as vice president, reviving a political rivalry that has shaped the country’s democratic landscape for more than two decades.
Obasanjo and Atiku emerged as the first democratically elected President and Vice President after the end of military rule in 1999, winning the election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party.
For much of their first term, the administration was widely regarded as a formidable political partnership, with Atiku playing a prominent role in the National Economic Council, the National Council on Privatisation and several economic reform initiatives.
However, relations between the two leaders deteriorated sharply during Obasanjo’s second term in office.
The crisis intensified after Atiku opposed attempts by allies of the former President to amend the Constitution to allow a third presidential term for Obasanjo.
The failure of the controversial constitutional amendment in 2006 widened the gulf between both men and triggered one of the most bitter power struggles in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic.
The feud escalated into legal battles over the powers of the vice president after Obasanjo declared Atiku’s office vacant following his defection from the PDP to the then Action Congress ahead of the 2007 general election.
The Supreme Court eventually ruled that the President lacked constitutional powers to remove an elected vice president, allowing Atiku to complete his tenure.
Since leaving office, both men have repeatedly traded accusations over corruption, abuse of office and political betrayal.
In his memoir, My Watch, published in 2014, Obasanjo accused Atiku of corruption, disloyalty and placing personal ambition above national interest.
Atiku dismissed the allegations, accusing his former principal of attempting to rewrite history and portraying himself as the victim of political persecution during the closing years of the Obasanjo administration.
Although the two politicians briefly reconciled ahead of the 2019 presidential election when Obasanjo endorsed Atiku’s bid against President Muhammadu Buhari, the rapprochement proved short-lived, with both men subsequently returning to separate political paths.
Obasanjo has since remained one of Atiku’s most vocal critics, repeatedly urging Nigerians to prioritise competence, integrity and national interest in the choice of future leaders.
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