Kayode Oyero
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said he did not leave ‘weak ’ successors in office when he left Aso Rock in 2007 .
He stated this on Sunday during a virtual interview with academic and historian , Toyin Falola , monitored by
The PUNCH .
The ex -president was reacting to accusations by critics that he installed the late Umaru Yar ’adua and Goodluck Jonathan as president and vice -president respectively after his eight -year rule.
Obasanjo was Nigeria’ s president between 1999 and 2007 under the banner of the Peoples Democratic Party. He handed over power to Yar ’adua , a two -term governor of Katsina State , who died in office as president , three years after he was elected in 2007 .
Upon Yar’ adua ’s demise in May 2010 , Jonathan, who was then his deputy , was sworn in as president in accordance with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria .
The PUNCH had reported that Jonathan later won the 2011 presidential election and returned to office but handed over to the incumbent President , Major General Muhammadu Buhari ( retd .) , in 2015 after he ( Jonathan) lost his re - election .
Many Nigerians have since criticised Obasanjo for bringing the late Yar ’adua into office despite knowing his medical history . Obasanjo has also been censured for bringing Jonathan, whom some critics described as ‘ weak’ , into Aso Villa .
But speaking on Sunday , Obasanjo said he distinguishes between objective and mischievous criticisms but discards negative criticisms .
The former president said he did his homework very well to crosscheck Yar ’adua ’ s medical condition before he ran for president .
He described as “ absolutely nonsense , total nonsense” , claims that he installed Jonathan and Yar’ adua in power to weaken Nigeria’ s democracy . “ How should somebody in the like of me deliberately do something to weaken the country that I fought for? The country of my birth , the country that I want to be great ?” the ex -president asked .
When asked whether he was aware that the late Yar ’ adua was sick before he supported his candidacy , Obasanjo said, “ Let me tell you the story of Umaru Yar ’ adua. I knew he was ill and before I put him forward , I asked for his medical report which he sent to me and I sent it to one of the best doctors of our time and a good friend of mine who died only last year – Professor Akinkugbe .
“ I said look at it because it is confidential and he said to me that from this report, this man has had a kidney transplant and it is successful, he is no longer under dialysis . And if you have a kidney transplant and it is successful, it is as good as if you didn’ t have a kidney transplant at all . I accepted that and Umaru Yar ’ adua contested within the party and he contested within the country and came up .
“ In the process of the campaign , I remember that he had to go for a medical checkup abroad and he was not around for a campaign here in Abeokuta . I called him because the rumour was that he had died. I called him on my telephone and put it on speaker. I said , ‘ Umaru , are you dead or alive?’ and he said, ‘I am not dead , I am alive’ .
“ Within a couple of days , he came back and reported that he was checked up and he was well . That was the position of Umaru Yar ’adua and if anybody in his right sense will think that what I have done in that position was not right , I leave him in the hands of God. ”
Obasanjo further said the PDP needed a running mate for Yar ’ adua during the 2007 presidential campaign . He said the party agreed to produce a vice -president from the South -South geopolitical zone , noting that former Rivers State Governor , Peter Odili , was a stronger choice than his then Bayelsa State counterpart , Goodluck Jonathan, but Odili had a case with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission .
“ Now , we needed a running mate for Yar ’adua . There were two possibilities – the first possibility was Peter Odili . Peter Odili was a much stronger personality than Goodluck Jonathan but Peter Odili had an EFCC issue which made him to be dropped and once he was dropped , the next man was Goodluck Jonathan and Goodluck Jonathan had all going for him . He was not a strong character as Peter Odili , I will admit that, but he was not a pushover ; he had been a deputy governor , he had been a governor and his state was doing fairly well .
“ I don’ t know what else anybody will say because the deputy president had to come from the South and we had agreed that it would come from the South -South , ” the former military ruler said.
https://punchng.com/i-didnt-leave-weak-successors-says-obasanjo/

ftc

Another dummy like Buhari will still take over

OBJ tried in his own way sha