F\ormer President Olusegun Obasanjo has defended his decision to make a former Governor of Katsina State, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, his successor in 2007. Obasanjo, in an interview with a Lagos-based private television station, Channels Television, monitored yesterday, said of all the presidential aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Yar’Adua was the best. Yar’Adua, who went on to win the presidential election, died in office on May 5, 2010.
Besides the late Yar’Adua, others who vied for the PDP’s presidential ticket in 2007 included former Rivers State Governor, Dr. Peter Odili; former Cross River State Governor, Mr. Donald Duke; former Akwa Ibom State Governor, Chief Victor Attah; former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana; former Lagos State Governor, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Marwa and the present Imo State Governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha.
Although some of the presidential aspirants such as Odili, Duke and Attah pulled out of the race at the dying minutes, the late Yar’Adua polled 3,024 votes to clinch the PDP’s ticket. However, speaking against the backdrop of his criticisms of the late Yar’Adua’s administration and that of former President Goodluck Jonathan who took over from the deceased, Obasanjo said his criticisms notwithstanding; he had no regrets in choosing the deceased president above others.
He stated that majority of those angling to succeed him in 2007 were either not prepared for the job or were corrupt. He added that his choice of the late Yar’Adua was guided by facts available to him then and he and his team took the decision with all sense of responsibility.
According to him, his conscience will not allow him to give the job to a corrupt or inept person. 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.”
On how he came to choose the late Yar’Adua above others, Obasanjo said: “With all the people that were available to be my successors, what we came up with was the best as at that time we could think. Is it the one that we know are corrupt that we will now go and take? No! “One of them 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 because I don’t have the stamina to do it the way you are doing it’.
If he has told me that, should I then say come let me give you the job? Now, what do you expect me to do with that person? “Or the one that I know that this one, before he gets the job, he was stinkingly corrupt. Will I be able to defend myself before God and man?
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