{"id":92691,"date":"2025-01-13T09:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T09:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=92691"},"modified":"2025-01-13T09:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T09:10:10","slug":"how-jimmy-carter-saved-me-from-abachas-gulag-obasanjo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=92691","title":{"rendered":"How Jimmy Carter saved me from Abacha\u2019s gulag \u2013 Obasanjo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Sunday paid glowing tributes to the late former American President, Jimmy Carter, whom he described as a \u201ctitan and man of peace.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Obasanjo, who paid the tribute at a memorial service held in honour of late President Carter, held at the Chapel of Christ the Glorious King, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, Ogun State, recalled how Carter stuck out his neck to save his life by seeking his release from prison under the late Head of State, General Sanni Abacha.<\/span><\/p>\n

Carter, the 39th president of the United States and the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for his post-presidential work, died at 100, on December 29, 2024, at his home in Plains, Georgia.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said, \u201cPresident 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\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the evenings of our lives, I became a victim of a militarialist man \u2013 Sani Abacha \u2013 who wanted to rule Nigeria perpetually till end of his life. President Carter was one of my foreign friends who stuck their necks out to save my life and to seek my release from prison\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOn President Carter\u2019s 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. 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\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would remain ever grateful to all who worked for my release from Abacha\u2019s 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\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the US, I called on President Jimmy 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, \u201cPlease see Ted Turner and thank him for his generosity. He came to me and asked me to get his friend, Obasanjo, released from prison. \u2018I will take care of him and his family here or wherever he chooses to live\u2019\u201d. I was touched and moved to tears. I immediately went to Ted who expressed to me the same sentiment that President Carter expressed. He proved his generosity and I kept going back to President Carter anytime I could spare to express my gratitude to him\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I would miss a great and true friend but I know we shall meet again in Paradise\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne great lesson I learned from President Carter was that in his leadership, he carried along an army of co-workers that shared the ideal and the burden of the work with him. He led by example and in humility and that made success to attend his way\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking on the attributes of the late President Carter, Obasanjo described him as \u201ca simple, humble, honest man of God-, he would prefer nothing better than a simple but significant service in his memory. He was a humble man of simplicity\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut why should I decide to have a service in memory of an American President who lived and died almost 5000 miles away? It is because he was a great world leader, he was a righteous man whose righteousness spread over the whole world; he was a lover of humanity, a man of God; and he was a great and true friend of mine\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of early life background, I shared similarity with President Jimmy Carter. He was born into a farming family in Plains, Georgia, and I was born into a farming family in rural village of Ibogun-Olaogun in Ogun State\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe grew up under a father and mother who were disciplinarians, who instilled in him essence of discipline, morality, hard work, integrity, kindness and humility, compassion for the poor and strong belief in God. My parents inculcated similar attributes in me as I was growing up in a rural area that had no pipe water, no electricity just as it was in Plains, Georgia, while Jimmy Carter was growing there. He beat me though in one respect, there was road to his settlement, there was no road to my village. We walked to every place or, at best, we were carried on bicycle\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Carter had military background which I had and, in fact, we met when I was a military Head of State. But if not that we were both in politics, our paths may not have crossed\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u25aa\ufe0e By <\/span>Vanguard<\/b><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Sunday paid glowing tributes to the late former American President, Jimmy Carter, whom he described as a \u201ctitan and man of peace.\u201d Obasanjo, who paid the tribute at a memorial service held in honour of late President Carter, held at the Chapel of Christ the Glorious King, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":92291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[941,6920,440],"class_list":["post-92691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-abacha","tag-carter","tag-obasanjo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/92291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}