Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo has defended his former vice-president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Obasanjo made it clear that Atiku did not present him as a saint nor messiah unlike the other candidate.

The erstwhile president made these remarks in an interview with BBC Pidgin recently. He said;

“Atiku is not a messiah, he’s not a saint; and fortunately, he’s not claimed to be. He’s not claimed a fake sanctimoniousness. He came here, acknowledged and showed remorse.”

“He acknowledged his past misdeed and showed remorse and all the things I’ve said about him still remains. I said them and nobody has come to controvert them but I am a believer and a Christian as such, and the teaching of God in my own religion is forgive so that you can be forgiven.”

“The choice that we have for the immediate Nigerian situation today is between the candidate of APC and PDP.”

“From what I know of Buhari and what he has done and shown – his utter incompetence, nepotism and condonation of evil and misconduct, including corruption, the weakness of the body, mind and totality of Buhari compared with Atiku, I believe Atiku will perform two times better than Buhari.”

“You can steal the whole of Nigeria, and if you belong to APC, you’re safe; but you can steal N10, if you criticise Buhari and his government, even when you stole that N10, 15 years ago, they’ll come and ask for the N10.”

“All these institutions that are meant for the running of good governance, of making Nigeria wholesome, are being abused and misused just to perpetuate Buhari in government. That cannot be the way to go.”