TheCable

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar “can never enjoy” his support for a political office.

He said God will never forgive him if he backs Atiku’s presidential ambition.

Atiku served as vice-president to Obasanjo from 1999 to 2007. He aspired to succeed Obasanjo in 2003 but the elder statesman went ahead to complete another term.

By 2007 when Obasanjo’s second term ended, both men had fallen apart. Obasanjo’s alleged third term agenda was also said to have worsened their dispute.

In an interview with Premium Times, Obasanjo said he has no personal grudges against Atiku but only works with anyone “working for the good of Nigeria”.

“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,” he was quoted as saying.

“It is not a question of working with or not working with an individual. 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.

“I do not have personal grudges with anyone. If you do not do well for Nigeria, you do not do well for all of us.”

He added that his opposition to Abubakar’s ambition is only within the political sector and does not translate to other spheres of their lives.

“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,” he said, adding that “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 … God will not forgive me”.

Wole Soyinka, Nobel laureate, said Thursday that Obasanjo “knelt down” before Atiku in a bid to clinch the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2003 election.