MATTHEW OLUSEGUN AREMU OBASANJO

AGE: 70
OCCUPATION: President of Nigeria
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 0
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 0

PRO: Leads Africa's northern regional power. He has done much to repair Nigeria's image as a politically mess prone to military coups and crippled by official corruption.

CON: The walkup to elections this month has been marred by violence that has taken scores of lives. Critics say that Obasanjo was behind the accusations of corruption leveled against his vice president Atiku Abubakar, who opposed the president's successful bid to rewrite the constitution to allow himself a third term in office (which he apparently won't take). There's also an insurgency growing in the neglected, oil-rich Niger delta.