Why I rejected US political asylum despite Abacha’s arrest threat – Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has disclosed that he turned down an offer of political asylum from the United States despite warnings that he would be arrested if he returned to Nigeria during the military regime of the late General Sani Abacha.

The former Nigerian leader also spoke about his decision to venture into farming after retiring from the Nigerian Army at the age of 42.

Obasanjo made the revelations while recounting his experiences under military rule in an interview published by BBC News Pidgin on Tuesday.

He explained that despite the threat of arrest upon his return to Nigeria, he chose not to accept the offer of asylum in the United States.

He said, “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.

“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.

Obasanjo said his farming business was progressing well until Abacha’s government moved against him. He said he rejected the US asylum because he had committed no crime.

“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 said his passport was later seized, after which he proceeded to his farm. On arrival, one of his security personnel informed him that government security operatives had surrounded the premises.

According to him, a police officer dressed in civilian clothes subsequently approached him, claiming that an Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) had invited him.

“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.’”

The former president also disclosed that former United States President Jimmy Carter intervened on his behalf by appealing to Abacha. He said the intervention initially resulted in his being placed under house arrest after he had been held at an undisclosed location.

“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.

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