Former Nigeria Head of state, General Yakubu Gowon says he sent his wife at the middle of the night with a letter to beg the then Head of State, General Sani Abacha not to kill Olusegun Obasanjo, who latter became two term civilian president after the death of Sani Abacha.
General Yakubu Gowon made this known while speaking as Special Guest of Honour at the maiden edition of the Interdenominational Unity Christmas Carol and Praise Festival organised by the Plateau State Government, according to News Agency of Nigeria, NAN.
The former President, Olusegun Obasanjo was also a guest of Honour at the event which General Yakubu Gowon thanked Plateau State government for organising the ceremony to bring unity in the state.
The former Head of State said pleaded with late General Sani Abacha not to execute former President Olusegun Obasanjo for an alleged coup plot in 1995 which Obasanjo denied any involvement.
According to Gowon: “I wrote a letter to Abacha; I pleaded with him that God made him a leader to do good and not evil.
I sent my wife with the letter in the middle of the night to Abacha in Abuja; I pleaded with him that such a thing should not happen.
“I’m glad that soon after that, things changed, and not only that Obasanjo left prison, he became our president in 1999.
“This is something that only prayers and sincerity can do; I’m happy that today myself and Obasanjo are here to celebrate the unity of Plateau State,” he said.
Obasanjo was accused by the military dictator, General Sani Abacha of being part of a planned coup to overthrow his government in 1995.
Obasanjo had denied any involvement then. But Despite denying any involvement and in spite of pleading innocent to the coup, Obasanjo was not spared as he was sentenced to death.
He went on to spend three years in prison before he was released in 1998 following the death of Abacha on June 8 of same year.
Obasanjo left prison to become Nigeria’s first civilian President after return to democracy in 1999. He led Nigeria for eight years, that is two consecutive terms of four years each.
General Yakubu Gowon was Nigeria Military Head of State from 1966 to 1975. He provided leadership during Nigeria-Biafra war which started 1967 and ended 1970, during which, Olusegun Obasanjo was one of his major commanders at the battlefield against the Biafra forces.
It would be recalled that in September, 2023, former President Olusegun Obasanjo said that he would not want a military rule in Nigeria again because of his experience in the hands of the late military dictator, Sani Abacha.
Obasanjo stated this when the Africa for Africa Youth Initiative (A4A) paid him a courtesy visit at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Ogun State.
People’s Gazette reported that, Obasanjo said, “Yes, I love democracy. Having suffered at the hands of Abacha (Nigeria’s late military dictator), I will not want a military rule. But if it has to come, what can we do? I will just say okay oh.”
The former president regretted that coup d’etat would not be happening if not because we created the condition for it. “The point is this: do we have conditions that encourage the type of things that are happening? If we don’t have the conditions that encourage them, they may not happen.
That does not mean it should be encouraged. What it means is that we should make sure that we do everything to prevent coups from happening.”
The former president stressed that “youth are looking for liberators, and we must bear that in mind.
“Why do we have to allow the youth to start looking for liberators beyond the government of the day? Why?”
“When you see things that happen in many countries, and I will not exclude Nigeria,” he however, pointed out, “then you wonder and don’t forget, don’t forget particularly the youth, they support most of these coups. The one in Gabon, the coup leader, was being carried on the head by the youths, not by old wretched men and women like me.”