Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, on Friday, stated that there was no alternative to democracy, as he almost lost his life to a dictator under a military rule. Obasanjo and some other retired military officers and civilians were jailed in 1995 by the military government of the late Gen. Sani Abacha, after he was found guilty by a military tribunal of allegedly plotting to overthrow Abacha’s administration. They were released after the dictator’s death in 1998.
Narrating his near-death experience under Abacha’s regime, the former President said he would support the current democratic dispensation led by President Muhammadu Buhari to succeed. He said, “I will work for the success of this current dispensation. There is no excuse, because there is no alternative to democracy. The alternative to democracy is worse than democracy. I experienced that. Abacha put me in prison and I was about to be killed. If it was under democracy (democratic rule), that would not happen.”
Obasanjo further said no matter what critics of President Buhari might be saying, Nigerians had started to witness a Nigeria of their dreams in the last two and half months.