A former President, Olusegun Obasanjo has explained why he chose the late former President Umaru Yar’ Adua as his successor.

Obasanjo said only Yar’ Adua was upright among the rest members of the PDP, adding that the rest contenders were corrupt.

The ex-general said one of the people who wanted to succeed him in 2007 was “stinkingly corrupt” and that the only way he (Obasanjo) could justify himself before man and God was to go for Yar’Adua.

The former President, who spoke in an interview with Channels Television, in Abeokuta, however, failed to mention the names of the so-called corrupt contenders.

It would be recalled that Obasanjo’s deputy, Abubakar Atiku; and ex-Governor of Rivers State, Peter Odili were among those who fought for the PDP presidential ticket.

Obasanjo eventually settled for Yar’ Adua, who died in office on May 5, 2010 from what doctor termed acute periccadietis.

Speaking with Channels, Obasanjo said he only acted based on the information made available to him.

He said, “Even if you take your son as your successor, you are not sure of what he will do when he gets there. Don’t ever kid yourself.

“What do I know about any successor? What he presents. When he gets there, he presents it differently.

“We did our best, but if you say our best is not good enough, I will say, when it comes to your turn, do better.

“With all the people that are available for successor, what we came up with was about the best that we could think of at that time.

“One of those who wanted to do the job came to me and said, ‘Sir, I like your job, but I cannot do it the way you are doing it.’ Now, if he had told me that, should I then come and say, ‘okay, come, let me give you the job?’ He had told me that, ‘I like your job, but look, the way you are doing it, I haven’t got the stamina to do it that way.’ Then, what do you expect me to do?

“Or the one that I know that, oh!, this one, before he gets the job, he’s stinkingly corrupt. Now will I be able to defend myself before God and man if with what I know I give this job or I encourage the man to have this job?”