Stella Mowunmi Obasanjo (née Abebe, 14 November 1945 – 23 October 2005) was Hon. First Lady of the Federal Republic from 29 May 1999 until her death on 23 October 2005 — the only Nigerian First Lady to have died in office. Born at Iruekpen-Ekpoma in the Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State to Christopher Abebe (Chairman of the United Africa Company of Nigeria) and Mrs Maria Abebe, she was educated at Anglican Girls' Grammar School Lagos and Saint Andrew's University, Scotland. She married Olusegun Obasanjo in the late 1970s, after his Murtala-era Headship; the marriage produced their son Olumuyiwa Obasanjo (b.1981).
Her tenure as Hon. First Lady was framed by her own approach: low-volume, philanthropy-focused, conscious of the Office's lack of constitutional grounding. She ran the Child Care Trust (CCT), launched in 2000 — Nigeria's first federally-affiliated programme for children with developmental disabilities — building the Child Care Centre at Maitama, Abuja, and the CCT regional centres at Ibadan, Calabar and Owerri. Her annual 'Birthday Gala' on 14 November became the fund-raising calendar event for paediatric disability services in the country. She declined to revive the Maryam Babangida BLP/FSP architecture in its full form.
She managed an extraordinarily turbulent eight years as First Lady-consort. The Obasanjo presidency presided over the Odi massacre (November 1999), the Zaki Biam massacre (October 2001), the Bola Ige assassination (December 2001), the Sharia riots, the 2003 elections crisis, the Third Term Agenda (rejected by the Senate in May 2006), and the Pat Utomi/Donald Duke succession struggles. Her relationship with her husband through these years was reportedly strained; she was rarely present at Aso Rock for extended periods after 2003.
On 23 October 2005 she died at the Molding Clinic, Puerto Banús, Marbella, Spain, from complications of an abdominoplasty (tummy tuck) and liposuction procedure: liver injury caused by the surgical perforation, leading to massive blood loss. The Court of First Instance, Málaga, in 2009 convicted the Spanish surgeon Antonio Castillo Lopéz of professional negligence (sentenced to one year's imprisonment and a €120,000 fine; he served three months). She was buried at the Obasanjo family compound at Ota, Ogun State, on 5 November 2005. Her son Muyiwa publicly accused his father of refusing to permit a Nigerian autopsy.