Few people are aware that all Nigerian presidents, with the exception of Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari, were once teachers and that both General Murtala Mohammed and General Sani Abacha were born and buried in Kano.
The 30 startling details about Nigerian leaders since 1960 are listed below.
30 Things to Know About Nigerian Leaders.
1. Since Nigeria’s independence in 1960, no president or head of state has been born in Nigeria.
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2. As well as being the only president whose precise birth year is unknown, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo also lost his wife Stella while in office.
3. The only Nigerian vice presidents who have ever been elected president are Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan.
4. Only two leaders in Nigerian history—Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari—have held both the positions of military Head of State and civilian president.
5. The two presidents who succeeded Obasanjo—the first as Head of State in 1979 and the second as president in 2007—did not serve out their full terms.
6. Both of these presidents, Shehu Shagari of Sokoto State and Umaru Yar’Adua of Katsina State, were from the North-Western region.
7. Yakubu Gowon wed in Lagos during the Nigerian civil war, as soldiers perished on the front lines. At 32 years old, he is the youngest head of state and the first to marry while in office. He also had the longest (9-year) uninterrupted reign.
8. Major Kaduna Nzeogwu murdered Alhaji (Sir) Ahmadu Bello and his wife in 1966. His great-grandfather was Uthman Dan Fodio, a prominent jihadist from Sokoto. He has a university named after him that is the biggest in West Africa.
9. Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo was the only one of the four main founding fathers to only have married once. She remained alive until she was 98 years old.
10. Political rivals Samuel and Alvan Ikoku, the two men depicted on the 10 naira note, were father and son.
11. The intended Prime Minister for 1959 was Alhaji (Sir) Ahmadu Bello (as the head of the NPC), not Alhaji (Sir) Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. Balewa was given the job, and he was referred to as “my lieutenant in Lagos.”.
12. The first Nigerian civil engineer and the founder of the NNDP, a political party in Nigeria, is Herbert Heelas Samuel Macaulay, who is depicted on the one naira note. Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther’s grandson was him.
13. Kano is the birthplace and final resting place of both generals Murtala Mohammed and Sani Abacha.
14. As the head of state, Murtala Mohammed had neither a convoy nor escorts. When he passed away at age 37, he was the youngest head of state to do so.
15. The last child, a boy, born in Aso Rock in 1994, was the ninth child to General Sani Abacha.
16. Mondays were the day of General Sani Abacha’s birth and death.
17. The first president who was elected and passed away in office was Umar Musa Yar’Adua.
18. Emeka Ojukwu slept in his boots every night during the civil war.
19. The record for tallest Head of State is still held by Major-General Johnson Thomas Umunakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi. Initially, he served as the military Head of state.
20. In 1959, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh established the Central Bank of Nigeria. In the 1966 coup on January 15, he was the only minister to die.
21. As of the time this list was being written, Muslims had ruled Nigeria for 31 years and 5 months, compared to 25 years and 9 months under Christian rule.
22. As the sole Head of State in Nigeria who is not affiliated with a political party, Chief Ernest Adegunle Oladeinde Shonekan is a civil servant. He was the only leader who wasn’t elected and the only one to leave office.
23. Olusegun Obasanjo ruled Nigeria for the longest period of time (both military and civilian) for 11 years, 7 months, and 18 days, while Ernest Shonekan had the shortest reign (2 months, 21 days). The two of them are the only South Westerners to have ever held the presidency. They both hail from the Ogun State city of Abeokuta. Christians, both of them.
24. Whether ousted or kept in power, every Nigerian head of state who had a resident of Ogun State as his deputy passed away while in office.
25. Except for Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari, all presidents in office today were once educators.
26. Only Niger, Katsina, and Ogun States have produced two national leaders.
27. 3 days (July 29–August 1, 1966) were spent without a leader in Nigeria.
28. Dr. Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe was the only president to have no executive authority at all.
29. First incumbent President to lose an election was Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
30. The only president and head of state who could speak Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba (Nigeria’s three main languages) with ease were Igbos, namely President Nnamdi Azikiwe and Major-General Johnson Thomas Aguiyi Ironsi.
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