Olusegun Obasanjo, who became Nigeria’s first elected president in 1999 after nearly two decades of military dictatorship, left vast swathes of the country trapped in poverty when he handed power to Yar’Adua last year. With oil reaching $100 dollars per barrel, and energy-hungry giants like the United States and China beating a path to Nigeria’s door, Africa’s leading oil producer wants to use petrodollars to cure the country’s economic ills and flex its muscles in the international arena.