Obasanjo Reveals How Abacha Ordered His Arrest, Recounts Rejection Of US Asylum Offer

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.