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Olusegun Obasanjo became the Nigerian head of state for the first time in February 1976 following the assassination of General Murtala Ramat Mohammed – Mr. Obasanjo was until then Federal Commissioner for Work and Housing in Murtala’s military government. Keeping the chain of command established by Murtala Muhammad in place, Mr. Obasanjo pledged to continue the programme for the restoration of civilian government and to carry forward the reform programme to improve the quality of public service. In October 1977, a Constitutive Assembly was convened in order to draw a new Carta Magna, which was later approved in September 1978. This led to the abolition of the military government, the end of the state of siege which had come about with the arrival of the military regime in 1966, and the legalization of political parties.

Mr. Obasanjo served until October 1, 1979, when he handed power to Shehu Shagari, a democratically elected civilian president, becoming the first leader in Nigerian history to surrender power willingly. In late 1983, however, the military seized power again. Mr. Obasanjo, being in retirement, did not participate in that coup, nor did he support it.

During the dictatorship of Sani Abacha (1993–1998), Mr. Obasanjo spoke out against the human rights abuses of the regime, and was imprisoned with the claim of planning a coup. He was released only after Abacha's sudden death on 8 June 1998.In the 1999 elections – the first democratic elections in sixteen years – he decided to run for the presidency as the candidate of the People's Democratic Party. Mr. Obasanjo won the elections and was later also re-elected in 2003.

While leading a public campaign against corruption and implementing economic reforms in his country, he has been widely seen abroad as an African statesman championing debt relief and democratic institutions. Olusegun Obasanjo stepped down after the April 2007 elections – w

Olusegun Obasanjo, a retired general elected president of Nigeria in 1999, is due to step down in May and hand power to the winner of this year’s elections.

He steps down ater two four-year terms in office as president of Africa’s largest oil producer. Nigeria has seen a great deal of growth under his presidency, but most of the country’s 140 million inhabitants still live on less than one dollar a day.

Although Obasanjo has portrayed himself as a campaigner against graft and corruption, critics say he has been far more rigorous investigating his opponents than his own administration.

Obasanjo was born in 1937. He joined the army in 1958, at the age of 21, and fought against the Biafran secessionists in the Nigerian civil war.

In 1975, he supported a coup led by Murtala Mohammed, a military general. Although Obasanjo did not directly participate in the coup, he was made Mohammed’s deputy in the new administration, which promised a transition to a civilian government.

A year later Mohammed was assasinated in an attempted coup. Obasanjo himself escaped assasination because another general was mistaken for him and killed in his place, leaving  Obasanjo to take over as military ruler of Nigeria.

He pledged to continue with Mohammed’s plan to establish a civilian government and in 1979 handed power over to a civilian administration, considered the first time an African military leader has willingly handed over power to a civilian authority.

Nigeria returned to military dictatorship in 1983 and during the 1990s Obasanjo was outspoken against human rights abuses by the government and spent three years in prison. He was released in 1998, publically announcing he was a born-again Christian.

He was elected as president of Nigeria in 1999, in a poll marred by fraud, and re-elected in similar circumstances four years later.

Wole Soyinka,

Nigerian head of state, 1976–79 and 1999–2007

ChiefOlusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu ObasanjoGCFR (; Yoruba: Olúṣẹ́gun Ọbásanjọ́[olúʃɛ́ɡũɔbásanɟɔ]; born c. 5 March 1937) is a Nigerian general and statesman who serv