Toyyibat Qasim
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has recounted how the late military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, ordered his arrest and imprisonment, revealing that he rejected an offer of political asylum from the United States despite warnings that returning to Nigeria could lead to his detention.
Obasanjo also narrated how he was eventually arrested after returning to the country, detailing the circumstances surrounding his encounter with security operatives, the intervention of former United States President Jimmy Carter and his subsequent transfer to prison.
The former president disclosed this in an interview with BBC News Pidgin on Tuesday, where he reflected on his military career, farming activities and ordeal under Abacha’s military administration.
Obasanjo, 89, said he ventured into farming after retiring from the Nigerian Army at the age of 42, having attained the rank of a four-star general and served as Nigeria’s military Head of State.
He explained that although he had not initially planned to leave the military at such a young age, his attainment of the highest military rank and the country’s top political office left him with little ambition to pursue within the Army.
According to him, he handed over power to the late President Shehu Shagari on October 1, 1979, and subsequently decided to concentrate on agriculture.
He said his farming business was progressing successfully until the Abacha regime allegedly targeted him for elimination.
“When I was leaving government as military Head of State, I was leaving too early. I didn’t join the Army to retire at the age of 42.
“At the age of 42, I had become a four-star general. There was nothing else I could do in the Army. I had become the military Head of State. That was the highest political office I could rise to.
“So, what could I do? I decided I would go into farming. It was really going well until I was arrested,” he said.
Recounting how he narrowly rejected the opportunity to seek refuge abroad, Obasanjo said the American ambassador in Nigeria contacted him while he was travelling outside the country.
He said the ambassador informed him that the United States government had offered him political asylum because it anticipated that he would be arrested if he returned to Nigeria.
However, the former president said he declined the offer, insisting that he had committed no offence that would justify abandoning his country.
Obasanjo alleged that Abacha had decided he must be eliminated to enable the military ruler to consolidate his grip on power.
“Abacha had decided that I must be liquidated; otherwise, he would not be able to have his way. I didn’t know that.
“I was travelling and coming back, and the American ambassador in Nigeria called me and said his country had offered me political asylum because they knew I would be arrested if I returned home.
“This was difficult for me. I haven’t done anything. What do they want to arrest me for? I don’t want political asylum,” he recalled.
The former president said that upon his return to Nigeria, security operatives seized his international passport before he proceeded to his farm.
He disclosed that his security detail stopped him at the entrance to the farm and informed him that security operatives had surrounded the premises.
According to him, about 15 minutes later, a police officer dressed in civilian clothes arrived and informed him that an Assistant Inspector-General of Police wanted him to come and assist him.
Obasanjo said he rejected what he considered an inappropriate invitation, insisting that if the senior police officer genuinely needed his assistance, he should personally come to the farm.
He, however, eventually drove himself to the police station, where the AIG informed him that he had received instructions to arrest him.
“So, it was my own car that I used to take myself to the police station. We saw the AIG, and the AIG said, ‘I have been instructed to arrest you,’” he said.
Obasanjo further disclosed that former United States President Jimmy Carter intervened in his ordeal by appealing to Abacha over his detention.
He said he was initially held at an undisclosed location before Carter’s intervention reportedly resulted in his being placed under house arrest.
However, the situation allegedly changed when security operatives stormed his residence in the early hours of the morning and took him away while he was playing squash at about 1am.
The former president said he was subsequently transferred to prison.
“Then President Jimmy Carter came. He pleaded, and they put me under house arrest.
“Then they came one day; I was playing squash at about 1am. They came and said they were taking me away. They took me away, and from there, I went to prison,” he narrated.
Abacha ruled Nigeria from November 17, 1993, until his death on June 8, 1998, after overthrowing the Interim National Government headed by Ernest Shonekan in a bloodless coup.
His administration was widely criticised for authoritarian rule, political repression and the detention of perceived opponents.
Obasanjo’s arrest and imprisonment occurred during the period, with his release following Abacha’s death in June 1998.
The former military ruler’s death paved the way for a political transition under his successor, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, whose administration eventually handed over power to an elected civilian government.
Following his release, Obasanjo joined partisan politics and contested the 1999 presidential election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party.
He won the election and was inaugurated on May 29, 1999, becoming Nigeria’s first elected president under the Fourth Republic.
He served two consecutive four-year terms before handing over to the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on May 29, 2007.
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