Nigeria: Why I Rejected U.S. Asylum Offer Before Abacha Arrested Me - Obasanjo

What the report says

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said he turned down an offer of political asylum from the United States during the period of military rule under Gen. Sani Abacha, even after being told he could face arrest if he returned home. The account was carried by Vanguard and distributed by AllAfrica, based on an interview Obasanjo gave to BBC News Pidgin. He said he believed he had done nothing wrong and therefore did not want asylum.

Obasanjo also described how, after retiring from the Nigerian Army at age 42, he went into farming. According to his remarks, that business was doing well until security forces moved against him. He said his passport was taken, his farm was surrounded, and he later drove himself to a police station after being told by a plainclothes officer that an Assistant Inspector-General wanted to see him.

He further said that the AIG informed him he had been instructed to arrest him. Obasanjo added that former U.S. President Jimmy Carter intervened by appealing to Abacha, after which he was placed under house arrest and later taken away to prison. The episode is a reminder of the pressures faced by prominent political figures under Abacha’s government, which in Nigeria’s recent history is widely associated with repression and detention of opponents.