Olusegun Obasanjo

==Reception and legacy==
[[File:Statue of Olusegun Obasanjo.jpg|thumb|Statue of Olusegun Obasanjo in Owerri, [[Imo State|Imo state]], Nigeria.|267x267px]]
John Iliffe described Obasanjo as "the outstanding member of the second generation of independent African leaders who dedicated themselves to the consolidation of their postcolonial states".{{sfn|Iliffe|2011|p=2}} He thought that there were four major achievements of Obasanjo's presidency: that he partially contained the domestic turmoil permeating Nigeria, that he kept control of the military, that he helped to form the African Union, and that he liquidated the country's external debt.{{sfn|Iliffe|2011|p=186}}
In December 1999, his approval rating was at 84%; by 2001 it was at 72%; and by September 2003 it had fallen to 39%.{{sfn|Iliffe|2011|p=210}}

Obasanjo was repeatedly accused of corruption throughout his career, although maintained that his dealings were honest.{{sfn|Iliffe|2011|p=204}}
Obasanjo's critics believed that after his imprisonment in the 1990s, he increasingly perceived himself as a messianic figure, having lost his humility and become increasingly committed to the belief that it was his God-commanded destiny to rule Nigeria.{{sfn|Iliffe|2011|pp=158–159}} Obasanjo's critics believed that he had been corrupted by power and that, particularly during his second term in office, he became driven by the idea of indefinitely retaining power for himself.{{sfn|Iliffe|2011|p=3}}
During his first term as head of state, he earned some enmity from fellow Yoruba who believed that he should have done more to advance the interests of his own ethnic group in government.{{sfn|Derfler|2011|p=84}}

After his imprisonment, Obasanjo claimed that criticism only served to confirm "the rightness of my cause" and demonstrated his critics' "depravity in a fallen and perverted world".{{sfn|Iliffe|2011|pp=158–159}}