The Most Famous

POLITICIANS from Nigeria

This page contains a list of the greatest Nigerian Politicians. The pantheon dataset contains 19,576 Politicians, 21 of which were born in Nigeria. This makes Nigeria the birth place of the 102nd most number of Politicians behind Jordan, and Honduras.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Nigerian Politicians of all time. This list of famous Nigerian Politicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Nigerian Politicians.

1. Muhammadu Buhari (b. 1942)

With an HPI of 62.63, Muhammadu Buhari is the most famous Nigerian Politician. His biography has been translated into 82 different languages on wikipedia.

Muhammadu Buhari (; born 17 December 1942) is a Nigerian statesman who served as the president of Nigeria from 2015 to 2023. A retired Nigerian Army major general, he served as the country's military head of state from 31 December 1983 to 27 August 1985, after taking power from the Shehu Shagari civilian government in a military coup d'état. The term Buharism is used to describe the authoritarian policies of his military regime. Buhari ran for president of Nigeria on the platform and support of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in 2003 and 2007, and on the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) platform in 2011. In December 2014, he emerged as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress party for the 2015 general election. Buhari won the election, defeating incumbent President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. This was the first time in the history of Nigeria that an incumbent president lost a re-election bid. He was sworn in on 29 May 2015. In February 2019, Buhari was re-elected, defeating his closest rival, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, by over 3 million votes.

2. Bola Tinubu (b. 1952)

With an HPI of 57.23, Bola Tinubu is the 2nd most famous Nigerian Politician. His biography has been translated into 41 different languages.

Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu (born 29 March 1952) is a Nigerian politician who has served as the 16th president of Nigeria since 2023. He was previously the governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007, and senator for Lagos West in the Third Republic. Tinubu spent his early life in southwestern Nigeria and later moved to the United States where he studied accounting at Chicago State University. He returned to Nigeria in the early 1990s and was employed by Mobil Nigeria as an accountant, before entering politics as a Lagos West senatorial candidate in 1992 under the banner of the Social Democratic Party. After the military head of state Sani Abacha dissolved the Senate in 1993, Tinubu became an activist campaigning for the return of democracy as a part of the National Democratic Coalition movement. In the first post-transition Lagos State gubernatorial election, Tinubu won by a wide margin as a member of the Alliance for Democracy. Four years later, he won re-election to a second term. After leaving office in 2007, he played a key role in the formation of the All Progressives Congress in 2013. In 2023, he was elected president of Nigeria.

3. Olusegun Obasanjo (b. 1937)

With an HPI of 56.65, Olusegun Obasanjo is the 3rd most famous Nigerian Politician. His biography has been translated into 57 different languages.

Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo ( ; Yoruba: Olúṣẹ́gun Ọbásanjọ́ [olúʃɛ́ɡũ ɔbásanɟɔ] ; born c. 5 March 1937) is a Nigerian general and statesman who served as Nigeria's 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. Born in the village of Ibogun-Olaogun to a farming family of the Owu branch of the Yoruba, Obasanjo was educated largely in Abeokuta, Ogun State. He joined the Nigerian Army and specialised in engineering and was assigned to the Congo, Britain, and India, rising to the rank of major. In the late 1960s, he played a senior role in combating Biafran separatists during the Nigerian Civil War, accepting their surrender in 1970. In 1975, a military coup established a junta with Obasanjo as part of its ruling triumvirate. After the triumvirate's leader, Murtala Muhammed, was assassinated the following year, the Supreme Military Council appointed Obasanjo as head of state. Continuing Murtala's policies, Obasanjo oversaw budgetary cut-backs and an expansion of access to free school education. Increasingly aligning Nigeria with the United States, he also emphasised support for groups opposing white minority rule in southern Africa. Committed to restoring democracy, Obasanjo oversaw the 1979 election, after which he transferred control of Nigeria to the newly elected civilian president, Shehu Shagari. Obasanjo then retired to Ota, Ogun, where he became a farmer, published four books, and took part in international initiatives to end various African conflicts. In 1993, Sani Abacha seized power in a military coup. Obasanjo was openly critical of Abacha's administration and in 1995 was arrested and convicted of being part of a planned coup, despite protesting his innocence. While imprisoned, he became a born again Christian, with providentialism strongly influencing his subsequent worldview. He was released following Abacha's death in 1998. Obasanjo entered electoral politics, becoming the PDP candidate for the 1999 presidential election which he won. As president, he de-politicised the military and both expanded the police and mobilised the army to combat widespread ethnic, religious, and secessionist violence. He withdrew Nigeria's military from Sierra Leone and privatised various public enterprises to limit the country's spiraling debt. He was re-elected in the 2003 election. Influenced by Pan-Africanist ideas, he was a keen supporter of the formation of the African Union and served as its chair from 2004 to 2006. Obasanjo's attempts to change the constitution to abolish presidential term limits were unsuccessful and brought criticism. After retiring, he earned a PhD in theology from the National Open University of Nigeria. Obasanjo has been described as one of the great figures of the second generation of post-colonial African leaders. He received praise both for overseeing Nigeria's transition to representative democracy in the 1970s and for his Pan-African efforts to encourage cooperation across the continent. Critics maintain that he was guilty of corruption, that his administrations oversaw human rights abuses, and that as president he became too interested in consolidating and maintaining his personal power.

4. Sani Abacha (1943 - 1998)

With an HPI of 54.28, Sani Abacha is the 4th most famous Nigerian Politician. His biography has been translated into 48 different languages.

Sani Abacha ((); (20 September 1943 – 8 June 1998) was a Nigerian military dictator and statesman who ruled Nigeria as the military head of state from 1993 following a palace coup d'état until his sudden death in 1998. Abacha's seizure of power was the last successful coup d'état in Nigerian military history. He wielded power with an unyielding attitude and his rule heralded an unprecedented total disregard for human rights with several political assassinations and summary executions of dissidents and political opponents in Nigeria. His rule drew disrepute to the country with Nigeria becoming a pariah state in international relations particularly with regards to the execution of environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. Sani Abacha was one of the twentieth century's most corrupt dictators as a kleptocrat for the alleged embezzlement of US$2–5 billion. Abacha, and his family allegedly hid most of the loot abroad in Switzerland, as well as in other jurisdictions including Liechtenstein, the United Kingdom and the United States. Abacha's death on 8 June 1998 brought about the Nigerian Fourth Republic a year later and he was succeeded as Nigeria's head of state by General Abdulsalami Abubakar.

5. Goodluck Jonathan (b. 1957)

With an HPI of 53.97, Goodluck Jonathan is the 5th most famous Nigerian Politician. His biography has been translated into 59 different languages.

Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan (born 20 November 1957) is a Nigerian politician who served as the president of Nigeria from 2010 to 2015. He lost the 2015 presidential election to former military head of state General Muhammadu Buhari and was the first incumbent president in Nigerian history to concede defeat in an election, thus allowing for a peaceful transition of power. Previously, Jonathan served as the vice president of Nigeria from 2007 to 2010 under the administration of Umaru Musa Yar'Adua; and in oil-rich Bayelsa State as governor from 2005 to 2007, and deputy governor from 1999 to 2005.

6. Umaru Musa Yar'Adua (1951 - 2010)

With an HPI of 53.12, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is the 6th most famous Nigerian Politician. His biography has been translated into 62 different languages.

Umaru Musa Yar'Adua ((); 16 August 1951 – 5 May 2010) was a Nigerian politician who served as the president of Nigeria from 2007 until his death in May 2010. He won the Nigerian presidential election held on 21 April 2007, and was sworn in on 29 May 2007. He had previously served as the governor of Katsina State from 1999 to 2007; and was a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In 2009, Yar'Adua left for Saudi Arabia to receive treatment for pericarditis. He returned to Nigeria on 24 February 2010, but died on 5 May.

7. Abdulsalami Abubakar (b. 1942)

With an HPI of 51.84, Abdulsalami Abubakar is the 7th most famous Nigerian Politician. His biography has been translated into 34 different languages.

Abdulsalami Abubakar ( ; born 13 June 1942) is a retired Nigerian army general who served as the military head of state of Nigeria from 1998 to 1999. He was also Chief of Defence Staff from 1997 to 1998. He succeeded General Sani Abacha upon the latter's death. During his leadership, Nigeria adopted a modified version of the 1979 constitution, which provided for multiparty elections. He transferred power to president-elect Olusegun Obasanjo on 29 May 1999. He is the current Chairman of the National Peace Committee.

8. Ibrahim Babangida (b. 1941)

With an HPI of 50.98, Ibrahim Babangida is the 8th most famous Nigerian Politician. His biography has been translated into 38 different languages.

Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (born 17 August 1941) is a Nigerian statesman and military dictator who ruled as military president of Nigeria from 1985 when he orchestrated a coup d'état against his military and political arch-rival Muhammadu Buhari, until his resignation in 1993 as a result of the post-12 June 1993 election which he illegally nullified. He rose through the ranks of the Nigerian Army fighting in the Nigerian Civil War and at various times being involved in almost all the military coups in Nigeria, before advancing to the full-rank of a General and ultimately as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces; and as an unelected President and military dictator from 1985 to 1993, ruling for an uninterrupted period of eight years. His years in power, colloquially known as the Babangida Era, are considered one of the most controversial in Nigerian political and military history, being characterized by a burgeoning political culture of corruption in Nigeria, with Babangida and his regime estimated to have appropriated at least 12 billion dollars (23.9 billion today). The Babangida regime oversaw the establishment of a state security apparatus; survived two coup d'ètat attempts and the subsequent execution of Mamman Vatsa (1985) and Gideon Orkar (1991) alongside the trial of hundreds of soldiers; assassination in Lagos of Dele Giwa (1986). The regime also faced a series of ethnic and religious outbreaks related to the fallout of Babangida's decision to increase cooperation with the Muslim world and rise in extremist tendencies. On the continent, his rule projected the country as a regional power with diplomatic successes including the Abuja Treaty and the military engagement of Nigerian troops in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Abroad, Babangida's military regime cemented traditional relations with the English-speaking world of the United States and the United Kingdom; and implemented economic liberalization and the privatization of state-owned enterprises alongside a national mass mobilization. The fall of Babangida and his regime was precipitated by the transition toward the Third Nigerian Republic and the subsequent militarization of politics in the 1993 presidential election which he annulled.

9. Shehu Shagari (1925 - 2018)

With an HPI of 50.95, Shehu Shagari is the 9th most famous Nigerian Politician. His biography has been translated into 34 different languages.

Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari (; 25 February 1925 – 28 December 2018) was a Nigerian politician who was the first democratically elected president of Nigeria, after the transfer of power by military head of state General Olusegun Obasanjo in 1979, which gave rise to the Second Nigerian Republic. An experienced politician, he briefly worked as a teacher before entering politics in 1951; and was elected into the House of Representatives in 1954. At various times between 1958 through independence of Nigeria in 1960 and 1975, he held a cabinet post as a federal commissioner or as a federal minister. As president, Shagari presided over the mass deportation of West African migrants in 1983, which primarily impacted Ghanaian migrants in Nigeria.

10. Yakubu Gowon (b. 1934)

With an HPI of 50.25, Yakubu Gowon is the 10th most famous Nigerian Politician. His biography has been translated into 33 different languages.

Yakubu Dan-Yumma "Jack" Gowon (born 19 October 1934) is a Nigerian former Head of State and statesman who led the Federal military government war efforts during the Nigerian Civil War. Gowon delivered the famous "no victor, no vanquished" speech at the war's end to promote healing and reconciliation. The Nigerian Civil War is listed as one of the deadliest in modern history, with some accusing Gowon of crimes against humanity and genocide. Gowon has maintained that he committed no wrongdoing during the war and that his leadership saved the country. An Anglican Christian from a minority Ngas ethnic group of Northern Nigeria, Gowon is a Nigerian nationalist, and a believer in the unity and oneness of Nigeria. Gowon's rise to power followed the July 1966 counter-coup and cemented military rule in Nigeria. Consequently, Gowon served for the longest continuous period as head of state of Nigeria, ruling for almost nine years until his overthrow in the coup d'état of 1975 by Brigadier Murtala Mohammed.

People

Pantheon has 27 people classified as Nigerian politicians born between 1900 and 1989. Of these 27, 12 (44.44%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Nigerian politicians include Muhammadu Buhari, Bola Tinubu, and Olusegun Obasanjo. The most famous deceased Nigerian politicians include Sani Abacha, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, and Shehu Shagari. As of April 2024, 7 new Nigerian politicians have been added to Pantheon including Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, and Moshood Abiola.