Profile
Chief Olusegun Mathew Okikiola Aremu Obasanjo, GCFR, Ph.D. was born on the 5th of May 1937 in Ogun state, Nigeria. Obasanjo is a retired Nigerian Army general who served as President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007. As a military general, Obasanjo served twice as Nigeria’s head of state, he served as a military ruler from 13 February 1976 to 1 October 1979, and as a democratically elected president from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007. From July 2004 to January 2006, Obasanjo also served as Chairperson of the African Union.
Personal Life
Olusegun Obasanjo was born in Abeokuta by his father; Amos Adigun Obasanjo Bankole and his mother Ashabi in Abeokuta. He became an orphan at the age of 22.
Obasanjo has been married four times. His wives were Esther Oluremi, Lynda (deceased), Mojisola Adekunle (deceased), and Stella Abebe (deceased). Obasanjo has twenty children. In alphabetical order they are: Bisoye, Biyi, Bola, Bukola, Busola, Damilola, Dare, Dayo, Deboye, Funke, Funso, Gbenga, Iyabo, Juwon, Kofo, Kunle (nephew Obasanjo adopted as a son), Olu, Segun, Seun, and Toyosi.
After the death of Stella Obasanjo, the former president married another lady known as Bola Alice.
Education
| School | Degree | Date |
| Saint David Ebenezer School, Ibogun | Primary certificate | 1948-1952 |
| Baptist Boys’ High School (BBHS), Abeokuta | SSCE | 1952 to 1957 |
| Indian Army Engineering School, at Kirkee, India | Military training | 1965 |
| Defence Services Staff College Wellington, India | Military training | 1960 |
Work History
| Place | Position | Date |
| 5th Battalion of the Nigerian Army | Military officer | 1958 – 1959 |
| Nigerian Army | Second lieutenant | 1959 |
| Nigerian Army | lieutenant | 1960 |
| Nigerian contingent of the United Nations Force, Congo | Lieutenant(later unit commander in 1963) | 1960- 1963 |
| Nigerian Army | lieutenant colonel | 1967- |
| Engineering Corps, Nigerian Army | Commander | 1970 – 1975 |
Political History
In January 1975 the head of state for the federal republic of Nigeria, General Yakubu Gowon, made Obasanjo the Federal commissioner for works and housing.
On 29 July 1975, when General Murtala Mohammed took power as head of state via a military coup, Obasanjo was appointed as the chief of staff supreme headquarters. In January 1976 he was promoted to lieutenant general.
Following a failed coup by Lt. Col. Buka Suka Dimka in which General Murtala Mohammed was killed, Obasanjo was chosen as head of state by the supreme military council on 13 February 1976.
Obasanjo resigned as head of state and also resigned from the army on 1 October 1979, handing over power to the newly elected civilian president of Shehu Shagari.
In the 1999 presidential elections, Obasanjo ran on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and defeated Olu Falae, the joint candidate of the All Peoples Party, APP, and the Alliance for Democracy, AD.
In 2003, President Olusẹgun Ọbasanjọ ran for a second term under People’s Democratic Party and won by a margin of more than 11 million votes.
