Olusegun Obasanjo
✓ Source-basedfallingNigerian president (1999-2007) and military leader (1976-79)
in NigeriaHe held Nigeria's top job twice - first as a general who handed power back to civilians in 1979, then as the elected president who came out of prison to win in 1999.
Also inDeutsch
Photos 12
"Colonel Olu Obasanjo, Commander, 3rd division". New Nigerian Newspaper, page 7, 12 January 1970. End of the Nigerian civil war with Biafra.
Obasanjo with U.S. president Jimmy Carter in the White House in 1977
U.S. president Jimmy Carter with Obasanjo on the former's state visit to Nigeria in 1978
The 1979 election of Margaret Thatcher as British Prime Minister contributed to deteriorating UK-Nigerian relations; Obasanjo deemed her too sympathetic to white minority governments in southern Africa![In 1986, Obasanjo met with Nelson Mandela. He related that it "was an encounter never to be forgotten. I saw in [Mandela] a South African indeed an African and a world leader of no mean order. He towered physically and metaphorically above all the leaders we met inside South Africa."[163]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/Nelson_Mandela_1998.JPG/330px-Nelson_Mandela_1998.JPG)
In 1986, Obasanjo met with Nelson Mandela. He related that it "was an encounter never to be forgotten. I saw in [Mandela] a South African indeed an African and a world leader of no mean order. He towered physically and metaphorically above all the leaders we met inside South Africa."[163]
Obasanjo with the Iranian president Mohammad Khatami in 1999
Obasanjo with Russian president Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin in 2001In their own words 10
For Africa to move forward, Nigeria must be one of the anchor countries, if not the leading anchor country. It means that Nigeria must be good at home to be good outside.
https://www.punchng.com/full-letter-obasanjo-writes-buhari-asks-president-to-halt-2019-ambition/%3famp
We have only one choice left to take us out of Egypt to the promised land.
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/256524-nigeria-needs-third-force-dislodge-buhari-obasanjo.html
Nigeria has no business being poor, we have all it takes to make Africa great.
Awards 9
In their orbit 3
Connected to Olusegun 6
Muhammadu BuhariAlso won Order of the Federal Republic
Aliko DangoteAlso won Order of the Nigeria
Mohamed ElBaradeiAlso won Indira Gandhi Peace Prize
Evgeny PrimakovAlso won honorary doctor of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia
Denis Sassou NguessoAlso won honorary fellow of the African Academy of Sciences
Jerry RawlingsAlso won Order of the Star of GhanaAbout this person
Born around 1937 in Ibogun-Olaogun to a Yoruba farming family, Obasanjo joined the army, rose to Major, and took the Biafran surrender in 1970 when Nigeria's civil war ended. A 1975 coup made him part of a ruling triumvirate; when its leader Murtala Muhammed was assassinated in 1976, the Supreme Military Council named Obasanjo head of state. He cut budgets, expanded free schooling, tilted toward Washington, backed anti-apartheid forces in southern Africa, and oversaw the 1979 election before stepping aside for civilian rule under Shehu Shagari. He retired to his farm, wrote four books, and worked African peace efforts until Sani Abacha's 1993 coup. Openly critical, Obasanjo was arrested in 1995 and convicted of coup plotting - a charge he denied - and in prison became a born-again Christian. Released after Abacha died in 1998, he ran for the Peoples Democratic Party, won, and served 1999 to 2007: he depoliticised the military, fought ethnic and religious violence, pulled troops from Sierra Leone, privatised state enterprises, won re-election in 2003, and chaired the African Union from 2004 to 2006. His bid to scrap term limits failed and drew anger.
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