Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has recounted how he rejected an offer of political asylum in the United States despite warnings that he would be arrested if he returned to Nigeria, a decision that eventually led to his imprisonment under the military regime of the late General Sani Abacha.

Obasanjo shared the experience while reflecting on his life after leaving the Nigerian Army and his subsequent detention during Abacha’s administration, according to a video published by BBC News Pidgin.

The former president said he ventured into farming after retiring from the military at the age of 42, having attained the rank of a four-star general and served as Nigeria’s military Head of State from 1976 to 1979.

He explained that he considered farming a new direction after reaching what he regarded as the peak of his military career.

However, his farming activities were interrupted when the Abacha regime moved against him.

Obasanjo recalled that while travelling abroad, the then United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Walter Carrington, contacted him and warned that he would be arrested if he returned to the country.

According to him, Carrington offered him political asylum in the United States as a way of avoiding arrest, but he declined the offer because he believed he had committed no offence.

“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? I don’t want political asylum,” Obasanjo recalled.

He said his passport was subsequently seized, after which he returned to his farm. On arriving there, one of his security personnel informed him that government security operatives had surrounded the property.

Obasanjo further recounted that a police officer in mufti later approached him, claiming that he had been invited by an Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG).

He said he initially questioned the invitation, insisting that if the AIG wanted to see him, the officer should come personally.

The former president, however, eventually drove himself to the police station, where the AIG informed him that he had been instructed to arrest him.

Obasanjo also recalled the intervention of former United States President Jimmy Carter, who appealed to Abacha on his behalf.

He said the intervention initially resulted in his being placed under house arrest, but he was later taken away in the middle of the night and transferred to prison.

“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 1am. They came and said they were taking me away. And they took me away, and from there, I went to prison,” he said.

Abacha ruled Nigeria from November 1993 until his death on June 8, 1998. Obasanjo was eventually released from prison following the military ruler’s death.

He subsequently contested and won the 1999 presidential election under the Peoples Democratic Party, becoming Nigeria’s civilian president on May 29, 1999. He served two terms, leaving office in May 2007.

Obasanjo had previously spoken publicly about rejecting the asylum offer in a 2020 condolence message following Carrington’s death, in which he acknowledged the former ambassador’s support for his family during his imprisonment.