However, due to traditional rites that prevented rulers from participating in business, Aliyu relinquished some of his trading interests when he became the Magaji.

[8] [9] Shehu Usman Shagari entered politics in 1951 when he became the secretary of the Northern People's Congress in Sokoto, Nigeria, a position he held until 1956.

In 1948, when Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe of the NCNC was touring Nigeria to raise funds to send a delegation to London to ask the Colonial Office to abrogate Richard's constitution as undemocratic, Shehu Shagari who was a keen reader of the West-African Pilot paper was the only man of Sokoto origin to attend this meeting.

When the British provincial educational officer was informed of Shagari's attendance, his salary increment was postponed that year to serve as a punishment.

At the same time, Shagari had started advocating for the departure of colonial rule that he had produced a Hausa pamphlet carrying poetry which he named "Anti Colonialist" and put it in circulation.

In 1950, Shagari, a young teacher at 25, was nominated by a British district officer H.A.S Johnson to participate in the Ibadan Conference to debate the Richards Constitution.

From 1965 up until the first military coup in January 1966, Shagari was the federal minister for works and had executed many important projects, including Eko Bridge Lagos, which was the first major contract of the German construction firm Julius Berger in Nigeria, and the completion of the Niger Bridge which was commissioned in 1966 by Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.

The same year, he was at the GATT ministerial conference in Geneva, where he raised the issue of European Economic Community's (ECC) discrimination against African countries like Nigeria who were not then, associated with EEC.

During his tenure as the commissioner of finance for Nigeria, Shagari was also a governor for the World Bank and a member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) committee of twenty.

[16][17] As a minister under Gowon, Shagari also undertook a peace mission to mediate between Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Idi Amin of Uganda in order to avert Uganda–Tanzania War by withdrawing their troops from the borders.

During the oil boom, Shagari made agriculture, industry, housing and transportation the major economic goals of his administration.

[21] Shagari's government embarked on a "Green Revolution", distributing seed and fertilizer to farmers to increase nationwide productivity in farming, In Agriculture.

Others notable road networks constructed include: Badagry-Sokoto, Lagos-Kano, Port Harcourt-Enugu, Kano-Bauchi, Warri-Okene, Abuja-Kaduna, Calabar-Ikom, Yola-Maiduguri, Mokwa-Bidda, Abuja-Keffi, Effurun-Patani-Kaiama, Jibia-Katsina, Kano-Kari and Potiskum-Maiduguri.

New passenger aircraft were also acquired for Nigerian Airways including eight Boeing 737s and four Airbus A310s during which Nigeria had the largest airline network in Africa.

Shagari "refused to embrace" structural adjustment from the IMF and World Bank as the crisis progressed,[30] and initiated an Economic Stabilization Program to help protect the country against a hard landing from prior highs of the 1970s and to steer the economy towards positive growth.

The key objectives of the program were to limit import licenses, reduce government spending, and raise custom duties.

This, coupled with a decline in world oil prices, and a deterioration in the national finances, hardship, leading to the regime becoming deeply unpopular with citizens.

However, before removal from office, in his second term, Shagari made attempts to curb corruption through the new Ministry of National Guidance under Yusuf Maitama Sule, which was solely created for that purpose.

A new program was introduced called Ethical Revolution which has the famous War Against Indiscipline which was launched under Gen. Muhammadu Buhari among its Initiatives.

In his short lived second term, Shagari retained only 7 of the 45 ministers from the previous administration to demonstrate his commitment in fighting corruption.

Shagari's administration also upgraded seven other existing colleges of education to degree-awarding institutions in Abraka, Ondo, Kano, Ado Ekiti, Bidda, Port Harcourt, and Zaria and also established eight other federal polytechnics in Ado Ekiti, Bidda, Bauchi, Idah, Uwana (Afikpo), Yola and Ilaro.

However, she declined after previously accepting, due to a lack of support from stakeholders in Southern Eastern Nigeria where the vice presidential ticket was zoned to, it was the closest Nigerian women have ever been to the presidency.

Similarly, Mrs. Elizabeth Ogbon was appointed Consul General to Hamburg Germany, Mrs. R Mohammed was Nigeria Ambassador to Botswana and Zimbabwe.

Military development The one-year term Shagari administration saw a rapid growth of the capacity of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

Over 4,177 civilians, 100 policemen and about 35 military personnel were killed, including Maitatsine himself, and is generally regarded as marking the beginning of the Yan Tatsine.

Because of this, there was widespread impression that Nigeria's security and economy was threatened by illegal aliens and this belief was fueled by the fact that other West African nationals had aided in armed robberies.

His presidency advocated and acted rigorously against apartheid in South African and white minority rule in Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Correspondence between President Shagari and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher shows that he has put so much pressure on Britain concerning the independence of Zimbabwe to the extent of risking the relationship between both countries.

[42] However, after the 1980 U.S. General Election which brought in President Ronald Reagan, Nigeria/US relationship got to a low especially during the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott which Nigeria refused to be part of.

[46] On 28 December 2018 at about 6:30pm, Shehu Shagari died from a brief illness at the National Hospital, Abuja, where he was admitted to and undergoing treatment before his death.