Why I Backed Yar’Adua In 2007 - Obasanjo

Idowu Samuel, Abuja - 27.06.2009

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo has reportedly debunked insinuations that he imposed President Umaru Yar’Adua on Nigerians during the presidential election in 2007.

Obasanjo, it was learnt, has been telling his close supporters and admires who confronted him with questions on why he backed and ensured Yar’Adua’s victory at the poll that he, indeed, consulted widely with relevant stakeholders, all of whom he said singled out the former Katsina State governor as one that should be the next president on five grounds.

Some confidants of the former president disclosed to the Saturday Tribune in separate interviews that each time anyone asked Obasanjo such a question, he would quickly list the five reasons Yar’Adua won his support and why he went all out to rally support for him across the country.

The five reasons reportedly listed by Obasanjo a consensus within the party that his successor should be a northerner; that he must be a former governor; that he must be well educated; that he must have a good record of fiscal discipline and that he must share in the policies and programmes of his administration for the sake of continuity.

Obasanjo was said to have stressed several times to those who sought his views on his support for Yar’Adua’s presidency that he had no ulterior motive for doing so, and that he decided to pitch tent with Yar’Adua because he was the only one who had the attributes that were listed that his successor must possess.

Obasanjo has been battling with criticisms on the omissions by the government of President Yar’Adua, particularly, the president’s alleged slow approach to governance, and amid suspicion that he delibeately shopped for the incumbent president to spite Nigeria over the collapse of his alleged ambition to get a third term in office.