Obasanjo Reveals How Abacha Planned To Kill Him, Abiola, Yar’Adua

Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has opened up about the harrowing experience of surviving an assassination plot orchestrated by the late General Sani Abacha.

Naijaonpoint reports that Obasanjo recounted how he, alongside General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and business mogul, Chief M.K.O. Abiola, was arrested and imprisoned under Abacha’s regime. He attributed his miraculous survival to what he described as the “special grace of God.”

Obasanjo made these revelations while speaking at Ogbor Uvuru in Aboh Mbaise, Imo State, on Sunday.

Recalling the tragic events, Obasanjo explained that Abacha had boasted that the three prominent men, himself, General Yar’Adua, and Chief Abiola, would not leave the prison alive. According to Obasanjo, this was part of Abacha’s plan to eliminate them, ensuring that he would remain in power perpetually.

He said, “When I was arrested, the man who arrested me, I thought he was making a mistake. He had decided that some of us must be liquidated if he has to be in power permanently. There I was, but then, initially I was confused, I had not done anything wrong. Was it a mistake?

“When I realised that it wasn’t a mistake, I was full of prayers, including praying as Stephen prayed but amended my own prayer somewhat. I said whether they know what they are doing or they do not know what they are doing, God forgive them.

“I resigned myself into the hands of God and the man who arrested us boasted that three of us will not come out of the detention or prison alive – that MKO Abiola will not come out alive, that Shehu Yar’Adua will not come out alive and that Olusegun Obasanjo will not come out alive.

“Two of the three he had planned not to come out alive did not come out alive, I did come out alive not because of my power but the special grace of God.”

While emphasising that he was a product of God’s grace, he stated, “If anybody can claim to enjoy the amazing grace of God, I can. I said God has been partial to me in taking care of me.”

He recalled a course he attended in 1959 in Ghana and that out of nine Nigerians who were successful, only two are alive today.

Obasanjo added, “I am not mocking those who are not alive, may their souls rest in peace, but I’m giving you examples of the grace of God in my life because those of them that are not alive, it is not that two of us are better than them. In a situation like that, what do I have to give God except to continue to appreciate His grace.”