Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo
says Walter Carrington, a former United States ambassador to Nigeria, offered
him asylum in the US before he was arrested by the regime of Sani Abacha, the
late military dictator.
In 1993, President Bill Clinton
appointed Carrington, who died last week, as US ambassador to Nigeria.
Although Carrington’s tenure
ended in 1997, the diplomat did not stop showing interest in Nigeria till he
died.
In a statement on Tuesday,
Kehinde Akinyemi, Obasanjo’s spokesman, said the ex-president sent a condolence
letter to the family of the late ambassador through Arese, wife of the
deceased.
According to Akinyemi, Obasanjo
said Carrington helped in easing the move to democratic rule in the country,
having met Nigeria under the military rule, which had run consecutively for
over a decade.
He said Carrington was one of the
responsible, mature and respected voices to take Nigeria out of the
“unwholesome situation” it found itself.
“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 from Amb.
Carrington,” Obasanjo wrote.
“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. That was both touching
and assuring, but I decided that, tempting and assuring as the offer was, I
would not take it. I came back and was arrested and imprisoned by Abacha. No
doubt, his generous assistance to my family while I was a political prisoner
makes me forever indebted to him.
“When I was in prison, he was one
of the few foreign Ambassadors who regularly visited my wife to encourage her
and to find out how I was doing in prison. I can proudly say he was a true
friend and brother.”
The ex-president added that
Carrington devoted his life to humanity “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”.
He said ex-US ambassador was not
just a pride to America and Americans, but also to the people of African
descent.
“He came to Nigeria with love,
ate and drank Nigerian delicacies and drinks, showed a significant
demonstration of oneness by walking the aisle to tie the nuptial knot outside
nationality bounds with one of our illustrious daughters and that is you, and
he was loved and appreciated by the people through giving him a Yoruba name
“Omowale” and naming a street after him in Victoria Island, Lagos,” Obasanjo
wrote.
“We celebrate his life well spent
in the service of humanity and we will continue to project his principles and
values in contributing to governance, security and sustainable development of
the African continent. His legacies will live on and continue to touch many
lives and generations to come. Indeed,
it gladdens my heart to know not only Nigeria and Africa, but many nations
around the world had a friend in him.
“Life is not about how long you
spend but how well you live to serve humanity, Amb. Carrington lived well and
successfully by making unique contributions to make the world a better place
than he met it.”
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