Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says he regretted picking Atiku Abubakar as his vice-president.

Obasanjo spoke on Friday during a fireside chat with Charles Oputa, popularly known as Charly Boy, in Lagos at the unveiling of Charly Boy’s foundation and his memoir: ‘999: A Memoir in Tribute to Late Justice Chukwudifu Oputa’.

Obasanjo served two terms as Nigeria’s president alongside Atiku between 1999 and 2007. However, the relationship between the two men later became frosty during Obasanjo’s second term in office.

Reflecting on his past, the former president said he thanked God that Atiku was never allowed to harm Nigeria under his watch.

“The man I picked as my running mate, my number two, if I had known as I came to know him later, I would not have picked him.

“I mean my vice-president. What I know about him later makes me… thank God because God did not allow his actions and reactions to overwhelm me or to divert my focus from Nigeria or to harm Nigeria,” Obasanjo said.

The former president, however, said he harboured no bitterness over what transpired between him and Atiku in the past.

“And then, there is no bitterness because he did things that he believed he should do and God did things He had to do, which made me achieve what I was able to achieve,” he said.

Since leaving office, both men have repeatedly traded accusations over corruption, abuse of office and political betrayal. In his memoir, My Watch, published in 2014, Obasanjo accused Atiku of corruption, disloyalty and placing personal ambition above national interest.

However, Atiku dismissed the allegations, accusing Obasanjo of attempting to rewrite history and portraying himself as the victim of political persecution during their closing years in office.

The verbal exchanges intensified recently after Obasanjo alleged that Atiku gave the late Ghali Umar Na’Abba, former speaker of the house of representatives, N5 million to begin impeachment proceedings against him during his first term in office. Obasanjo made the allegation while responding to comments by Olusegun Osoba, former governor of Ogun, on the political developments that preceded the 2003 general election.

Reacting, Atiku accused the ex-president of fabricating allegations against him to favour his kinsman ahead of the 2027 elections. Atiku did not name the kinsman, but President Bola Tinubu is Yoruba like Obasanjo, who, incidentally, openly supports Peter Obi, the Igbo presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).