Olusegun Obasanjo
Oluṣẹgun Mathew Okikiọla Arẹmu Ọbasanjọ (born 5 March 1937) is a Nigerian politician and military officer, and twice President of Nigeria. A born-again Christian of Yoruba ethnicity, Obasanjo was a professional soldier before turning to politics.
He has been Head of State on two occasions, the first as President of the Military Government between February 13, 1976 and October 1, 1979, and the second, as Constitutional President of Nigeria, democratically elected for terms (1999-2003 and 2003-2007).
In August 2021, the African Union appointed Olusegun Obasanjo High Representative for Peace in the Horn of Africa.
First stage of government
Obasanjo was born in Abeokuta, in the Nigerian state of Ogun, and enlisted in the army at the age of eighteen. He received military training from him at Aldershot, from where he graduated as an officer in the Nigerian Army. Although he did not directly participate in the coup d'état of July 29, 1975, led by Murtala Ramat Mohammed, he was appointed Vice President of the Government headed by him.
Following the assassination of General Murtala Ramat Mohammed in a coup attempt on February 13, 1976, Obasanjo replaced him as Head of State. He held office until October 1, 1979, when he handed over power to Shehu Shagari, the democratically elected civilian President, making Obasanjo the first Head of State in Nigerian history to relinquish power of his own free will. At the end of 1983, however, the army took power again. Obasanjo, already retired, did not participate in the coup, and it seems that he criticized it.
During the military government of Sani Abacha between 1993 and 1998, Obasanjo criticized the regime's human rights violations, and was imprisoned. He would not be released until Abacha's sudden death on June 8, 1998. Precisely after his release from prison, Obasanjo declared that he had become a born-again Christian. According to some analysts, this would have been the crucial factor that established his popularity in the southern states of Nigeria, where Christianity is the majority religion.
In the 1999 elections, the first democratic ones in sixteen years, he decided to run for president as a candidate of the Popular Democratic Party. Obasanjo was victorious with 62.6 percent of the vote, overwhelmingly in the Christian southeast and Muslim north, but losing significantly in his home region of the southwest to fellow Yoruba and Christian Olu Falae, the other candidate. The poor results in his home region have been interpreted as punishment for his previous tenure in government, when he ceded power to a civilian government dominated by Northern Nigerians, which would have caused resentment of him among the population. yoruba.
Second stage of government
Obasanjo was re-elected in 2003 in a disputed election with ethnic and religious overtones, in which his main opponent was Muhammadu Buhari, a northern Muslim who had also served in military governments in the past. Obasanjo won 61.8 percent of the vote, leading Buhari by more than 11 million votes. Buhari and other defeated candidates, including Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, a leader of Biafran secessionism in the 1960s, raised the charge of voter fraud, though international observers from the Commonwealth of Nations saw no irregularities that could cast doubt on Obasanjo's victory.. The electoral result, however, accentuated the geographic and religious polarization of Nigerian politics. Obasanjo won comfortably in the Christian south of the country, including the Yoruba area that had turned its back on him in 1999, but won far fewer votes in the north. Some analysts have seen in this result a dangerous tendency for unity and religious harmony in a country with deep ethnic and religious divisions, although others think that the results were normal given that, unlike the 1999 elections, the other main candidate he was a Muslim from the north.
His actions against corruption and in favor of economic reforms have given him considerable international prestige as an African statesman. Obasanjo has spoken publicly in favor of canceling the foreign debt of developing countries, free trade and economic and democratic reforms. As president of the African Union, he expressed the organization's rejection of three coups on the continent. In May 2007, he was succeeded as head of state by Umaru Yar & # 39; Adua.
Although Obasanjo has had several wives and numerous children with many of them, he was officially married to only one woman, Nigeria's First Lady Stella Obasanjo, who died in Marbella, Spain on October 23, 2005. This is the norm. among the politicians of black Africa, who flaunt the number of couples and children. One of the latest prominent examples is Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa since May 2009.
In August 2021, the African Union appointed Olusegun Obasanjo High Representative for Peace in the Horn of Africa.