Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said, that a very corrupt politician wanted to succeed him.
He also refuted claims by a section of the country that he made a wrong judgement in the choice of successor.
Obasanjo made the statements on Wednesday in a programme aired by Channels Television in Lagos, while responding to critics of his recent book, “My Watch” that his poor judgement led him to impose a terminally ill Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on Nigerians as his successor.
In defence of his decision at the time, the former President maintained that his choice of the late Yar’ Adua and the then Vice President Goodluk Jonathan, was made based on conviction that they were the best candidates he could see at the time.
He absolved himself of blame over the performances of the late Yar’Adua and former President Jonathan in office.
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. So we did the best. And when you say our best is not good enough, I would say when it comes to your turn, do better.”
The former president that scored himself high in his decision to pick the late Yar’Adua as Presidential candidate of his party above all other contenders.
He continued, “With all the people that were available for successor, what we came up with was about the best that at that time we could think of. Is it the ones that we know are corrupt that we will go and pick? No.
“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.’ No if he had told me that should I then say come and say ok come let me give you the job? He had told me that ‘look I like your job but the way you are doing it I don’t have the stamina to do it. Then what do you expect me to do?
“Or the one that I know that this one before he gets the job he is stinkingly corrupt? No. Will I be able to defend myself before my God and man that what I know and I give this job or I encourage this man to have this job?”
