Obasanjo was a four-star General and former President being jailed in his own country as a prisoner of conscience. The Prize was therefore presented to his wife Stella, who accepted the award on his behalf.
In October 1998, Olusegun Obasanjo was released. He decided to run for the Presidency on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). At the elections in February 1999, he won a landslide victory of 62.8% against his opponent Chief Olu Falae.
Olusegun Obasanjo, talks in his book My Watch about how Sani Abacha kept him in prison in 1994. This happened after he went to Jaramogi Oginga Odinga’s funeral. He went there because Raila Odinga had asked him to come.
The daytime event function in Bondo, attended by all Ford-Kenya leadership – Michael Wamalwa and others was well underway till the party was disrupted by a contingent of police from Siaya.
The police exploded tear gas canisters and attacked guests with batons. They also offered a lame excuse for the interruption terming that there was an outbreak of cholera and people had to disperse.
According to Raila, the following day, Obasanjo flew to Nairobi and then to Lagos, where he spent two days before flying out again to a meeting in Stockholm, Sweden.
He was not allowed to work in politics because he was kept in prison and his movements were restricted to his house. Furthermore, because his ranch was damaged, most of the workers had to stop working there.
His outstanding military moment came in 1969 when he took over command of the 3rd Marine Command from the then Colonel Benjamin Adekunle. He conceived and immediately launched “Operation Tail Wind,” which helped to bring the debilitating civil war to a quick end. He accepted the surrender of the “Biafran” forces in January 1970.
In 1970, he served as Commander of the Engineering Corps. He was promoted to the rank of Brigadier in 1972.
Mr Obasanjo was Chairperson of the African Union from July 2004 to January 2006 and, he has also at different times served as Chairman of the Group of 77, Chairman of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Chairman of the African Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee on NEPAD, and served on the African Progress Panel to monitor and promote Africa‘s development.
Mr Obasanjo was also involved in international mediation efforts in Namibia, Angola, South Africa, Mozambique and Burundi. In 2008, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed President Obasanjo as his Special Envoy on the Great Lakes.