Former Nigeria President, Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed how he narrowly escaped an alleged plan to eliminate him, Chief MKO Abiola, and General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua during their imprisonment. He attributed his survival to the ‘special grace of God.’
Speaking at an event in Ogbor Uvuru, Aboh Mbaise, Imo State, Obasanjo recounted that the man who got them arrested had allegedly openly declared that the three men would not leave prison alive, in a bid to perpetuate his rule.
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.”
Obasanjo emphasized that his life is a testimony of divine grace. “If anyone can claim to have experienced God’s amazing grace, I can,” he said. “God has been partial to me in how He has cared for me.”
He recalled attending a course in Ghana in 1959, along with eight other Nigerians. Of the group, only two are still alive.
“I’m not mocking those who are gone—may their souls rest in peace—but this is just an example of how God’s grace has followed me. It’s not that we who are still alive are better than those who are not.”
During the event, Obasanjo paid tribute to philanthropist and Kingdom investor, Obioma Success Akagburuonye’s 104-year-old mother, kneeling before her to “tap into the grace of long life,” as he put it.