My Mouth Landed Me In Trouble With Abacha – Obasanjo

Nigeria’s former President Olusegun Obasanjo has narrated what led to his clash with ex-military dictator, late Gen Sani Abacha.

Obasanjo has been notorious for criticising any government in power, even though his critics insist that his tenures as Nigerian leader were not utopian in any sense of it.

According to him, his frequent comments on key national issues landed him in trouble with the military regime of Abacha which jailed him.

Recall that Obasanjo was allegedly framed in a coup plot in 1995 by the regime which sentenced him for 30 years imprisonment alongside his former number two, late Gen Shehu Musa Yar’Adua.

Obasanjo as Nigeria’s military Head of State in 1976 had Yar’Adua deputized him as Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters following the murder of  former military leader Gen Murtala Muhammed, in a coup that year.

While Gen Yar’Adua died in prison, Obasanjo survived his predicament and later had fortune smiled on him by becoming Nigeria’s president in 1999 after the country returned to constitutional democracy that year.

The ex-president spoke  during an interactive session with young future African leaders from different parts of the continent under the aegis of Future Africa Leaders Foundation at his Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library. OOPL, Abeokuta, Ogun state.

The FALF is organised by popular Pentecostal pastor, Chris Oyakhilome of the Christ Embassy.

Obasanjo who traced his rise to power as both military head of state and civilian  president, to the assassination of Gen Mohammed, noted that his incessant critcisms of the military coups during the regime of Gen Abacha made them clashed resulting in his incarceration for four years.

He explained that he did not hesitate to conduct election to pave way for a civilian administration while he ruled the country as military leader, saying he used his tenure to stabililize the country following Mohammed death.

After Gen Mohammed’s death, he said, “We stabilized the country, conducted election and handed over. But when there was incessant coup in different parts of the country, I spoke against Military in general and Abacha’s in particular.

“The consequence was that I was arrested, tried and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment which Abacha later reduced to 15 years but God in his mercy, I only spent 3 years, three months and three days.

“But when I was in prison in Jos, Abacha’s son died and I wrote a condolence letter to him and also when he died, I also wrote a letter of condolence to his wife of which the prison authority found unbelievable but delivered all my letters.”

In and out of power, critics of the former President said,  Obasanjo had never sparred his successors, through various Letters he published criticizing their administrations.

Recently, the former Nigerian leader criticized the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for being to corrupt.