TODAY IN HISTORY: First Presidential Election in Nigeria was held in 1979

1979 is a remarkable year in Nigeria. That was the year that Nigeria held its first presidential elections nationwide after years of military dictatorship and a number of coup d'etats. Shagari won the 1979 election with the help of his campaign manager, Umaru Dikko. The campaign had the support of many prominent politicians in the North and among southern minorities. The party's name was National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and its motto was "One Nation, One Destiny" and was seen as the party best representing Nigeria's diversity.

Shagari is a northerner of Fulani extraction and holds the aristocratic title of Turakin Sakkwato in the Sokoto Caliphate. He worked as a teacher for a brief period before entering politics in 1954 upon his election to the federal House of Representatives.

Shehu Shagari served as the President of Nigeria’s Second Republic (1979–1983), after the handover of power by General Olusegun Obasanjo's military government.

Shagari made Housing, Industries, Transportation and Agriculture as the major goals of his administration, particularly in early on during the oil boom. Despite some successes, these programs were heavily plagued by corruption. Shagari completed the Delta Steel complex in 1982, and spent hundred of millions of dollars on the Ajaokuta Steel complex and the Steel rolling mills. However, allegations of kickbacks to prominent politicians hovers like a cloud on those projects. In transportation, he launched road networks across the country. He also initiated a program to foster the use of mechanical machinery in farming. It favored large scale farmers in order to produce mass products. However, it was hampered by the prevalence of retired military officers, who had acquired land as parting gift under the previous administration.