Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed that the late military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, saw him as a threat to his regime and had active plans to eliminate him.
He said he was arrested by the Abacha regime after leaving the military in 1979, at the age of 42, having served as the head of state for three years between 1976 and 1979.
He made the revelation while speaking at a book event at the University of Ibadan, where he recounted his travail under Abacha, who ruled Nigeria from 1993 until he died in 1998.
Obasanjo believed he left the military and government too early, and had to turn to farming as a profession before his arrest during Abacha’s military regime.
“I took to farming after leaving government at 42 before Abacha arrested me,” he said.
He further alleged that Abacha had resolved that he must be killed because he saw him as an obstacle to achieving his objectives.
Obasanjo was among several military officers and civilians, including former Chief of General Staff Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, who were arrested over an alleged plot to overthrow the Abacha government.
Before his arrest, Obasanjo had travelled to Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1995 to attend the World Social Summit in his capacity as a United Nations Human Development Ambassador.
While he was abroad, Obasanjo said the then United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Walter Carrington, contacted him, warned that he risked arrest if he returned home and offered him political asylum in the US.
Obasanjo, however, rejected the offer, maintaining that he had committed no offence that warranted fleeing his country.
He disclosed that former United States President Jimmy Carter was among those who intervened, adding that Carter visited Nigeria and appealed directly to Abacha on his behalf, but his entreaties were ignored.
He was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment by a military tribunal, but his sentence was commuted to 15 years. He regained his freedom in June 1998 after Abacha died in office.
Obasanjo was elected as Nigeria’s president in the Fourth Republic under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the country returned to democracy in 1999.
