Why I picked Jonathan instead of Odili for Yar’adua – Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed why he picked Goodluck Jonathan instead of Peter Odili, as President Umaru Yar’adua’s running mate.

In a book, ‘Against The Run Of Play’, written by a former Yar’Adua’s spokesman, Mr Segun Adeniyi, which is to be launched today in Lagos, Chief Obasanjo confirmed that Odili, a former Governor of Rivers State, was actually his first choice as Yar’adua’s running mate. But there some hurdles that did not make it possible.

“Of course, Jonathan was not my first choice as running mate to Yar’Adua; it was Dr. Peter Odili. But whether by fate or some conspiracy, Odili had hurdles that made it impossible for him to take that position. That was how I settled for Jonathan,” Obasanjo said.

The late Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, once said in an interview that Obasanjo chose Jonathan to be Yar’adua’s deputy in the 2007 election because he, Obasanjo, wanted to stop his former deputy, Atiku Abubakar, from running for president.

“Olusegun Obasanjo told me that since Atiku and I wanted to take his job, that it would be over his dead body, and that unless he died, Atiku cannot be president of Nigeria.

“Obasanjo said since Atiku had picked me as his running mate, he would make sure that he dealt with and disgraced us. He said he was going to use my deputy to rubbish me before everybody,” Alamieyeseigha had told journalists.​