Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has once again made a damning pronouncement against former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, saying he cannot support the latter in his ambition to rule Nigeria.
“How can I be on the same side with Atiku? To do what?” Obasanjo asked in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES shortly after his arrival from Kigali on Friday afternoon.
Obasanjo and Atiku ran the country together from 1999 to 2007.
There was, however, open hostility between the two, particularly from 2003 when Obasanjo was reported to have begged his deputy to secure the second term ticket of the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Atiku is one of the frontrunners for the PDP presidential ticket for the 2019 general elections.
“If I support Atiku for anything, God will not forgive me. If I do not know, yes. But once I know, Atiku can never enjoy my support,” Obasanjo said.
He added that his stance has nothing to do with Atiku’s 2019 presidential ambition.
“I do not have personal grudges with anyone,” Obasanjo said. “If you do not do well for Nigeria, you do not do well for all of us.”
“It is not a question of working with or not working with an individual,” he said. “If you are working for the good of Nigeria, I am working with you. If you are not working for the good of Nigeria it does not matter who you are I am not working with you.”
Obasanjo and Atiku met at an event in Abuja a little over a month ago and shook each other’s hands before photographers.
The former president, however, said his position about Atiku has not changed.
“I know Atiku very well. And I have mentioned my position with Atiku. My position has not changed,” he said.
On a personal note, he added, “If my children are getting married, he has sent representatives. If his children are getting married, I have sent representatives. That is social. That is not political.
But “on political ground, my position has not changed. If I support Atiku for a political office other than the one I supported him in the past when I did not know him, maybe, but not now that I know him, God will not forgive me.”
