I selected Yar’Adua because other candidates were corrupt –Obasanjo

Firstclass newsline gathered that Olusegun Obasanjo,Ex president said

on Wednesday that he chose the late former President Umaru Yar' Adua

as his successor because the others who wanted the post were corrupt.

Obasanjo said one of the people who wanted to succeed him in 2007 was

"stinkingly corrupt" and that the only way he (Obasanjo) could justify

himself before man and God was to go for Yar'Adua, who, he said, was

the only one among the contenders then who was not corrupt.

The former President, who spoke in an interview with a private

television station,Channels Television, in Abeokuta, did not mention

the 'corrupt' Yar'Adua rivals.

Among the prominent presidential hopefuls in the Peoples Democratic

Party in 2007 were Obasanjo's deputy, Abubakar Atiku; and ex-Governor

of Rivers State, Peter Odili.

Atiku later abandoned the PDP to contest the presidential election on

the platform of the defunct Action Congress while Odili's ambition

fizzled out with the nomination of Yar'Adua.

The AC later metamorphosed into the Action Congress of Nigeria, which

later merged with the Congress for Progressive Change and the All

Nigeria Peoples Party to form the now ruling All Progressives

Congress.

Obasanjo's choice of successor died on May 5, 2010 from heart-related

ailments. Many condemned Obasanjo for choosing a man who was

manifestly sick to lead the country.

But in theChannelsinterview, Obasanjo said he only acted based on the

information made available to him.

He said, "Even if you take your son as your successor, you are not

sure of what he will do when he gets there. Don't ever kid yourself.

"What do I know about any successor? What he presents. When he gets

there, he presents it differently.

"We did our best, but if you say our best is not good enough, I will

say, when it comes to your turn, do better.

"With all the people that are available for successor, what we came up

with was about the best that we could think of at that time.

"One of those who wanted to do the job came to me and said, 'Sir, I

like your job, but I cannot do it the way you are doing it.' Now, if

he had told me that, should I then come and say, 'okay, come, let me

give you the job?' He had told me that, 'I like your job, but look,

the way you are doing it, I haven't got the stamina to do it that

way.' Then, what do you expect me to do?

"Or the one that I know that, oh!, this one, before he gets the job,

he's stinkingly corrupt. Now will I be able to defend myself before

God and man if with what I know I give this job or I encourage the man

to have this job?"

Firstclassnewsline.com