Shehu Shagari

Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari (25 February 1925 – 28 December 2018) was the first democratically elected president of Nigeria, from 1979 to 1983 (Wikipedia). Born in Shagari to a Fulani family, he worked briefly as a teacher, entered politics in 1951 and was elected to the House of Representatives in 1954. Between 1958 and 1975 he held federal ministerial posts; as federal commissioner for finance he oversaw the launch of the naira.

He won the presidency in 1979 as candidate of the National Party of Nigeria, defeating Nnamdi Azikiwe in a close and controversial vote (country study). As president he prioritised industrial development, including the Ajaokuta steel works. His government faced the end of the oil boom in 1981, rising debts and political unrest (country study).

The town of Shagari was founded by his great-grandfather, Ahmadu Rufa'i. His father, Aliyu, a farmer, trader and herder, became the village head (Magajin Shagari) and died when Shehu was five (Wikipedia).

He began in a Quranic school, attended Yabo elementary school from 1931 to 1935, middle school in Sokoto from 1936 to 1940, and Barewa College from 1941 to 1944, and then trained at the Teachers' Training College in Zaria. From 1953 to 1958 he was a visiting teacher in Sokoto Province, and from 1954 to 1958 a member of the Federal Scholarship Board. As minister of economic development he helped draw up Nigeria's post-independence national economic plan (Wikipedia). He died on 28 December 2018 at the National Hospital, Abuja. His father had given up some of his trading interests on becoming village head, because tradition barred rulers from business. Shagari married three wives, Amina, Aisha and Hadiza, and had several children (Wikipedia).

He was re-elected in 1983 in an election widely regarded as fraudulent, and was overthrown in the military coup of 31 December 1983 (country study; Wikipedia).