“Mr. President…please save my country” ~ Shehu Yar’ Adua’s letter from prison to President Jimmy Carter

I was at the Shehu Yar’ Adua Centre today. I was fortunate to see this letter. What struck me was the fact that one could change the name of the writer of the letter and its recipient to say today’s President Obama and still have some 70 per cent of its content useful. To think that President Obasanjo once at a time suffered from the evil of the system, got a chance to change it and well history says he gave us what we now have…I was also struck by his ability to deflect the challenges away from his person to that of his country…You read as I have transcribed here verbatim et literatim

PS: Thanks to Jacqueline Farris (DG Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Foundation) for granting the permission to have this shared.

14 Aug 97

President Jimmy Carter,
Mr. President,
I am taking this opportunity to express to you my gratitude in your untiring efforts to secure Gen Obasanjo’s freedom and mine. My greater gratitude however, is on your continued effort for the wellbeing of my country and Africa.
I will forever cherish the memory of your African policy as president. For it was your policy that really laid the foundation for the demise of apartheid in South Africa and led to the real independence of Zimbabwe and Namibia. Your recent endorsement of Liberia’s election will, I am sure go a long way to bring peace to that country.
Mr. President, my country is today in the grip of a very greedy and inept dictatorship. Its once viable economy is in tatters but even worse, its institutions are being destroyed. In the face of all this, one’s personal problems appear inconsequential. In short, Mr. President, much more than Gen. Obasanjo and myself, Nigeria needs saving. Please help save my country.
Sincerely Yours,
Signed: Shehu Yar’ Adua