Obasanjo: I Rejected US Asylum and Chose Prison in Nigeria

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said he turned down an offer of political asylum from the United States even after being warned that he would be arrested if he returned to Nigeria during the regime of the late Gen. Sani Abacha, then military head of state.

Obasanjo said the choice was a hard one, because he did not think he had done anything that warranted his arrest.

He recalled the episode from Abacha’s time in power in a video published by BBC News Pidgin on Tuesday.

According to him, the American ambassador in Nigeria told him the United States had offered him political asylum out of concern that he would be arrested once he came home. Obasanjo said he rejected the offer and returned to Nigeria anyway, where he was eventually arrested.

“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.

Obasanjo also recounted how he went into farming after leaving the Nigerian Army at the age of 42. Having risen to the rank of four-star general and served as Nigeria’s military ruler from 1976 to 1979, he said he felt he had reached the highest point of his military career and decided to pursue agriculture instead.

He said the farm did well until his arrest under Abacha, who seized power in November 1993 after overthrowing the Interim National Government led by Ernest Shonekan.

Arrest and house detention

Obasanjo said he was on his way back to his farm when a member of his security personnel told him government forces had surrounded the premises. A police officer dressed in mufti later approached him and said he had been invited by an Assistant Inspector-General of Police.

Obasanjo said he initially rejected the invitation, insisting that if the AIG wanted to see him, the officer should come to the farm. He eventually drove to the police station, where the AIG told him he had been instructed to arrest him.

He further recalled that former United States President Jimmy Carter intervened on his behalf by appealing to Abacha. According to Obasanjo, that intervention led to his being placed under house arrest, but security operatives later took him to prison during a late-night operation.

“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,” he said.

Obasanjo was eventually released following Abacha’s death in June 1998.

He went on to contest and win the 1999 presidential election, becoming Nigeria’s first elected president under the Fourth Republic. He served two terms and left office in May 2007.