Olusegun Obasanjo
Olusegun Obasanjo was Nigeria’s military leader between 1976 and 1979 as head of the Supreme Military Council. But he handed over power to a democratically-elected president and stayed away from national politics for a while.
In 1993 when Sani Abacha seized power, Obasanjo became an outspoken critic of Abacha’s tyranny. This landed Obasanjo in prison but he was released upon Abacha’s death in 1998, and became a duly-elected president in 1999.
After leaving office in 2007, Obasanjo has become an ambassador of democratic governance, mediating in conflicts and supervising elections across Africa.
