The Most Influential Person On AIB This Week Is Chief Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo

Chief Olusegun Mathew Okikiola Aremu Obasanjo, GCFR, is a Nigerian political and military leader. He presided over Nigeria from 1976 to 1979 as its head of state and from 1999 to 2007 as its president. He was the first military leader in Africa to hand over power to a civilian government.

Obasanjo was born on March 5, 1937, to a farming family from the community of Ibogun-Olaogun. He had most of his education in Abeokuta, Ogun State. He attended Baptist Boys’ High School and afterward worked as a teacher. He later joined the army in 1958 and completed his officer training in England.

He advanced swiftly in the army. During his service in the military, he was stationed in the Congo, Britain, and India. He rose swiftly in the army. He rose to the rank of a major. He was a key player in the Nigerian Civil War’s Biafra separatist campaign in the latter half of the 1960s. He was given the responsibility of leading a commando division stationed at the Biafran front in southeast Nigeria between 1967 and 1970. In January 1970, he won the battle when the Biafran soldiers surrendered to him.

In 1976, Olusegun Obasanjo became Nigeria’s head of state, after the assassination of General Murtala Mohammed, during a failed coup attempt. During his years as the head of state, he became a significant African leader. He built relationships with the United States. He followed the timeline set by his predecessor, by conducting and handing over power to a civilian, Shehu Shagari, the winner of the general election, in 1979.

He held a variety of positions in the United Nations and other organizations. Obasanjo, a strong critic of General Sani Abacha, who seized power in Nigeria in Ok and erected an oppressive military regime, was jailed in 1995 for allegedly planning a coup against Abacha. He was released in 1998 after the demise of Abacha.

In 1999, he became Nigeria’s civilian president when he won the general election, under the People’s Democratic Party, PDP. In April 2003, he was re-elected as the president of Nigeria after winning 60 percent of the votes cast.

He has about twenty children from different women.