Obasanjo spoke on Friday at his Presidential Hilltop residence in Abeokuta when officials of the National Association of Nigerians Students paid him a visit.
The former president, while narrating his near death experience under the late Abacha administration, recalled that he and some retired military officers and civilians were jailed in 1995 for allegedly plotting to overthrow the administration and released after Abacha’s death in 1998.
He said, “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.
“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, who said no matter what the critics of President Muhammadu Buhari might be saying, added that in the last two and a half months Nigerians had started to witness a Nigeria of their dreams.
He noted that the country had headed toward the precipice so many times before, but God had not allowed it.