Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari GCFR (25 February 1925 – 28 December 2018), titled Turakin Sokoto from 1962, was a Nigerian aristocrat and statesman who was the first democratically elected President of Nigeria, after the transfer of power by military head of state General Olusegun Obasanjo in 1979 giving 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.