Obasanjo Takes Office in Nigeria

Date: May 29, 1999 • Location: Rome, Italy

President Olusegun Obasanjo took office as Nigeria's first elected and civilian head of state after 16 years of military dictatorship.

Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo is a Nigerian politician, statesman, agriculturalist, and former army general who served as Nigeria's Military Head of State from 1976 to 1979 and later as its president from 1999 to 2007. Ideologically a Nigerian nationalist, he was a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from 1998 to 2015, and since 2018.