Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has described his decision to select former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as his running mate in the 1999 presidential election as the greatest mistake of his presidency.
Obasanjo made the remark on Friday 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, in Lagos.
Responding to a question about the biggest mistake of his administration, Obasanjo said that, while every leader makes errors in office, his choice of vice president remained the one decision he regretted most.
Reflecting on his years in office, the former President said, “What I have found in my own life is that mistakes that could have been fatal, God had taken care of them for me.”
When pressed to identify a specific mistake, Obasanjo replied: “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 to confirm whether he was referring to Atiku, Obasanjo responded: “My vice president. I don’t know what name you want to give him, but my vice president, I mean that.”
He added that, with the benefit of hindsight, he would have made a different decision.
“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.
Despite his criticism, Obasanjo maintained that he bore no personal resentment towards his former deputy.
“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.
The comments represent one of Obasanjo’s strongest public assessments of his decision to choose Atiku as vice president, reviving a political rivalry that has defined Nigeria’s democratic politics for more than two decades.
Obasanjo and Atiku were elected as Nigeria’s first civilian President and Vice President following the end of military rule in 1999 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). During their first term, they were widely regarded as a formidable political partnership, with Atiku playing a prominent role in the National Economic Council, the National Council on Privatisation and key economic reform initiatives.
However, relations between the two leaders deteriorated sharply during Obasanjo’s second term in office. The rift deepened after Atiku opposed efforts by allies of the President to amend the Constitution to permit a third presidential term for Obasanjo.
The collapse of the controversial constitutional amendment in 2006 widened the divide between the pair and sparked one of the fiercest political confrontations of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic.
The dispute later escalated into a constitutional battle 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 subsequently ruled that the President lacked the constitutional authority to remove an elected vice president, allowing Atiku to complete his tenure.
Since leaving office, both men have repeatedly exchanged accusations of corruption, abuse of office and political betrayal.
In his 2014 memoir, My Watch, Obasanjo accused Atiku of corruption, disloyalty and placing personal ambition above national interest. Atiku rejected the allegations, accusing his former principal of attempting to rewrite history and portraying himself as the victim of political persecution during the final years of the Obasanjo administration.
Although the two politicians briefly reconciled ahead of the 2019 presidential election, when Obasanjo endorsed Atiku’s presidential bid against then-President Muhammadu Buhari, the rapprochement proved short-lived, with both men subsequently returning to opposing political positions.
Obasanjo has since remained one of Atiku’s most outspoken critics, repeatedly urging Nigerians to prioritise competence, integrity and national interest in choosing the country’s future leaders.
