‘I chose Yar’adua because others were corrupt,’ Ex-President says

Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo has said that he chose late Umaru Yar’adua to be his successor because others who had ambitions of filling the post were corrupt.

Obasanjo also said that he chose the late Yar’adua based on the information that was available to him at the time.
The former President made the comments on Wednesday, July 15, 2015, during an interview on Channels TV.
Obasanjo 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?”