2023: Only unpatriotic Nigerians will vote for candidates with bad characters – Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says only unpatriotic Nigerians will vote for candidates with bad character.

The former president said this on Thursday, 18 days after endorsing the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, for the 25 February election.

The former President had on 1 January thrown his weight behind Mr Obi, saying he is the best candidate for certain reasons that he adduced.

Mr Obasanjo gave his latest advice at an interactive session of the Experiential Leadership in Africa (TEL-Africa), in Abeokuta, capital of Ogun State,

The session was organised by TEL-AFRICA global with the theme “Executive Decisions, Indecisions, and Leadership Development in Africa.”

Reacting to criticisms over his endorsement of Mr Obi, the former president said he did not use the word “endorsed”, but only gave his opinion on the candidates.

His words, “Whether the letter is open or not open, what I believe is that I will be punished by God if I know what is right and I did not put it where it should be.

“The word I used is that one particular candidate has an edge, taking everything together and I take character, I take track record, I take vision and I take what you see in this man as a child of God.

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“I said they all claimed to be my mentees and of course I won’t deny that. But if you are my mentee, they must also admit that I know them a little bit and if I then know them a little bit, I must be right to say…

“I don’t know why people are… I have done this in the past before for President Buhari. I said President Buhari does not really understand economy and that is true and you have seen it. I wasn’t running him down, that is what he is and he himself will admit that.

“I said his (Buhari) understanding of foreign affairs is also very little because when he was military Head of State, he said his frontline does not go beyond the borders of Nigeria, that is a pity.”

While defending his use of language in the said new year message, Mr Obasanjo asked: “Why should you as a Nigerian vote for somebody that the character, the reputation, the life of which you do not want your own children to be?

“It is either you are wicked, you are unpatriotic or you are really, really a bad citizen of this country. And then if this is who you are, what do you want God to do with you and that is the way I see it.

“For the last three days, I have about 35 youths who I have been talking to and they all told me that education, security and corruption are what they are concerned about, the question is who then can do it?”