Carrington advised me not to return to Nigeria during Abacha days ― Obasanjo

Nigeria’s former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, on Tuesday, said the late former American Ambassador to Nigeria, Walter Carrington, advised him not to return to Nigeria in 1995, during the era of late General Sani Abacha.

Obasanjo disclosed this in a condolence letter addressed to Carrington’s widow, Arese, that the late diplomat, offered him political asylum in the United States when he knew that Abacha would arrest and imprisoned him.

He described the late American as one committed to improving humankind through the fairness, kindness, optimism and intelligence he brought to bear on all his undertakings, and through the righteousness, humanness and harmony he promoted in the US as a human rights activist and indeed across the world.

Obasanjo said: “Walter wasn’t just a pride to America and Americans, he was also a pride to all the people of African descent. His involvement in the many causes in Africa cannot be over-emphasised. He was always looking out for his kinsfolk both at home and abroad.

“Walter Carrington was the initiator of many wide-ranging diplomatic operations, particularly during his tenures as the US Ambassador to Senegal from 1980-1981 and Nigeria from 1993 to 1997. He engendered policies that strengthened political and economic ties between these two countries and America.

“Indeed, Africa gained a friend who cared about its well-being. He was such a committed humanitarian who did not just talk about peace-building but lived his life building peace and trying to make the world more wholesome.

“Throughout his tenure as an American Ambassador to Nigeria, Amb. Carrington helped in easing the move to democratic rule in the country. He met Nigeria under the military rule which had run consecutively for over a decade and bred a culture of arbitrariness, flagrant abuse of human rights and disdain for the rule of law all of which relegated our dear country, Nigeria, to the unenviable league of pariah states in the comity of nations.

“He was one of the responsible, mature and respected voices to take Nigeria out of the unwholesome situation it had found itself-permanently in crisis, regularly threatened with disintegration, prolongingly devoid of democracy, and economically plundered and mismanaged. As one of the few credible voices, several attempts were made to silence me. I was harassed and threatened.

“Indeed, I recall, sometime in 1995, that on one of my trips to Copenhagen to attend World Social Summit as Human Development Ambassador of the United Nations Development Programme, I received the most touching of the warnings, pieces of advice and offers to me from Amb. Carrington.

“He called me in Copenhagen and told me categorically that I was going to be arrested on returning home and, therefore, advised me not to return home. But he did not stop it there, he offered me political asylum by his government in the US.”

 

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