How I rejected US asylum, landed in prison — Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has recounted why he ventured into farming after leaving the Nigerian Army and how he was later arrested and imprisoned under the regime of former military Head of State, late Gen. Sani Abacha.

Obasanjo also revealed that he rejected an offer of political asylum from the United States despite being warned that he would be arrested if he returned to Nigeria.

The Ogun State-born elder statesman disclosed this while recounting his experience under Abacha’s regime, according to a video published by BBC News Pidgin on Tuesday.

Following the assassination of Gen. Murtala Muhammed, Obasanjo became Nigeria’s military Head of State on February 13, 1976, at 38.

He served in that role until October 1, 1979, when he handed over power to Shehu Shagari.

In his recall, Obasanjo noted that upon attaining the rank of a four-star general at 42, and ruling as the head of state, he felt he had reached the zenith of his military career. Hence, the decision to venture into farming.

Obasanjo, now 89, further recounted that he was arrested and put in prison under Abacha’s regime.

Abacha’s tenure was from November 17, 1993, until his death on June 8, 1998.

The former military ruler had seized power in a bloodless military coup that overthrew the Interim National Government led by Ernest Shonekan.

Speaking on this experience, Obasanjo 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.”

He stated that his passport was seized, after which he went to his farm

Upon his arrival, one of his security details informed him that the farm had been surrounded supposedly by government forces.

Obasanjo said that after some time,  a police officer, dressed in mufti, approached him at the farm and said he had been invited by an unnamed Assistant Inspector-General of Police.

He added that he later went to meet the AIG, who informed him of the directive to arrest him (Obasanjo).

“And when I arrived, they seized my passport; I made for my farm. At the gate of my farm was my security. He waved me down. He said that security had surrounded the farm. And within 15 minutes, this man came in mufti, not in uniform, a policeman, and he said, ‘Well, you have been invited by the AIG to come and help him.’ I said, ‘You are a fool.’

“‘If the AIG wants me to help him, he will not be inviting me. He will come here,” Obasanjo lamented, adding, “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.'”

Obasanjo also mentioned the assistance offered to him by a former United States President, Jimmy Carter, who helped plead with Abacha.

He said he was confined at an undisclosed location, but after Carter’s appeal, he was later placed under house arrest.

He added that on a particular day, in the dead of night, he was taken away and put in prison.

“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,” Obasanjo stated.

Following his release from prison after Abacha died in 1998, Obasanjo won the 1999 presidential election, becoming the first president of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic when he was inaugurated on May 29, 1999.

He served two terms in office before handing over power in May 2007.