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Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has recounted how he rejected an offer of political asylum from the United States, returned to Nigeria and was subsequently arrested and imprisoned under the regime of the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha.
Obasanjo said the American government offered him asylum after receiving information that he would be arrested if he returned to Nigeria.
However, he turned down the offer, insisting that he had committed no offence to warrant seeking refuge outside the country.
The former president made the revelation while narrating his experience under Abacha’s military government in a video published by BBC News Pidgin on Tuesday.
Obasanjo, who became military Head of State on February 13, 1976, following the assassination of General Murtala Muhammed, handed over power to civilian President Shehu Shagari on October 1, 1979.
Explaining why he went into farming after leaving office, the 89-year-old said he had attained the highest positions possible in the military and government by the age of 42, leaving him with little reason to remain in the Army.
He said, “When I was leaving government as military head of state, there was — I was leaving too early. I didn’t join the army to retire at the age of 42.
“Now I had to retire at the age of 42. At the age of 42, I had become a four-star general. There’s nothing else I can do in the army. I’ve become the military head of state. That’s the highest political office I could rise.
“So what can I do? I decided I would go into farming. It really was going well, and it went well until I was arrested.
“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 that I would be arrested if I returned home.
“This was difficult for me. I don’t— I haven’t done anything. What do they want to arrest me for? Um, I don’t want political asylum.”
Obasanjo said his passport was seized when he returned to Nigeria, after which he headed for his farm.
However, one of his security aides warned him that government security operatives had surrounded the property.
He said a police officer dressed in mufti later approached him and claimed that an Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) wanted him to come in for questioning. Obasanjo rejected the invitation, insisting that the AIG should come to the farm if he wanted to see him.
He eventually drove himself to the police station, where the AIG informed him that he had been instructed to arrest him.
Obasanjo also recalled how former United States President Jimmy Carter intervened on his behalf by appealing to Abacha. Following Carter’s intervention, he was moved from confinement to house arrest.
He said security operatives later arrived at about 1am while he was playing squash and took him away to prison.
He said, “I didn’t know that it was a decision of Abacha that some of us must not be kept free; otherwise, he would feel unsafe. I was put in a place.
“Then President Jimmy Carter came. He pleaded, and then they put me under house arrest. Then they came one day; I was playing squash at about 1 am.
“They came and said they were taking me away. And they took me away, and from there, I went to prison.”
Abacha ruled Nigeria from November 17, 1993, until his death on June 8, 1998. Obasanjo was released following the former military ruler’s death and went on to win the 1999 presidential election, becoming the first elected president of the Fourth Republic.
He served two terms in office, leaving power on May 29, 2007.
