Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed how former US President Jimmy Carter and CNN founder Ted Turner intervened to try to secure his release from prison during General Sani Abacha’s military dictatorship.
Obasanjo earlier said his imprisonment in 1995 stemmed from his refusal to remain silent on pressing national and international issues.
According to Obasanjo, his candidness became a liability under Abacha’s regime. He shared this account during a discussion with 15 emerging African leaders at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library.
Notably, Jimmy Carter has a history of diplomatic interventions and humanitarian efforts, including brokering a peace deal between Israel and Egypt in 1978.
Obasanjo honoured the late Jimmy Carter during a memorial service at the Chapel of Christ the Glorious King in Abeokuta on Sunday. Obasanjo remembered Carter as a “titan and man of peace” who left a lasting impact on the world.
Carter’s legacy includes serving as the 39th President of the United States and receiving the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for his post-presidential work. He died on December 29, 2024, at the age of 100, in his home in Plains, Georgia.
Obasanjo on Sunday expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the late Carter for his instrumental role in saving his life during his imprisonment under General Abacha’s regime.
Obasanjo revealed that Carter took a bold step by visiting Abacha solely to plead for his release from prison.
“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. But that did not last for too long,” Obasanjo was quoted as saying by Daily Trust.
He continued: “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 would remain ever grateful to all who worked for my release from Abacha’s gulag. Abacha ensured that I would not be released. Within a week of his death though, I was released by his successor, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who also facilitated my going round Africa and the rest of the world to thank all those who worked for my release.”
He said Carter later informed him of the efforts of Ted Turner, an American entrepreneur and founder of the Cable News Network (CNN), and others to secure his 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. I immediately went to Ted who expressed to me the same sentiment that President Carter expressed,” he said.
Obasanjo said he shared many things in common with Carter including an early life background.
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