Ibrahim Nasir

Who is Ibrahim Nasir?

Ibrahim Nasir was a Maldivian statesman who led the country to independence and later served as its president. He was appointed Prime Minister in 1957 under the restored sultanate and, on 26 July 1965, signed the agreement ending Britain's seventy-eight-year protectorate over the Maldives, achieving full independence. Within two months he secured the country's membership in the United Nations. When the Maldives abolished the sultanate and became the Second Republic, Nasir was sworn in as its president on 11 November 1968, a position he held for two five-year terms. As president, he is credited with founding the Maldivian tourism industry, which opened the country's first resorts in the early 1970s and later became the backbone of the national economy, as well as with modernizing government administration, infrastructure, and foreign relations. Although the People's Majlis voted to give him a third term, Nasir chose to retire from the presidency in 1978 and left the country. He died in Singapore in 2008. He is remembered as the architect of Maldivian independence and the founder of its modern tourism-driven economy.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Ibrahim Nasir" · SunOnline International, "The independence gained by the unyielding determination of Nasir" · The President's Office of the Maldives, official former-president biography