A former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo has paid tribute to the late American President Jimmy Carter, recalling how the former US leader visited Nigeria to plead for his release during the reign of military junta leader Sani Abacha.
Obasanjo spoke on Sunday at a memorial service in honour of Carter who died at 100.
“President Carter was one of my foreign friends who stuck their necks out to save my life and to seek my release from prison. On President Carter’s visit to Nigeria, he got Abacha to agree to take me from detention to house arrest on my farm,” Obasanjo said during the event held at the Chapel of Christ the Glorious King within the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
“But that did not last for too long. Many other friends and leaders intervened, but President Carter was the only non-African leader, according to my information, that paid a visit to Abacha solely to plead for my release.”
‘I was moved to tears’
The Abacha regime arrested Obasanjo in 1995 owing to an alleged coup plot. However, the former president was released after Abacha’s demise in 1998.
The following year, Obasanjo became Nigeria’s president, elected under the umbrella of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“In the U.S., I called on President Carter, who told me all the efforts he made with other leaders and Abacha remaining unyielding for my release. But the most surprising thing Carter said to me was, ‘Please, see Ted Turner and thank him for his generosity. He came to me and asked me to get his friend, Obasanjo, released from prison. I will take care of him and his family here or wherever he chooses to live.’ I was touched and moved to tears,” the former president told the gathering, describing the late Carter as his friend whom he will miss.
“For me, I would miss a great and true friend, but I know we shall meet again in Paradise. May his soul rest in peace,” the 87-year-old said.
Obasanjo extolled Carter’s virtues and said the former US president lived an exemplary life of service to humanity.