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As with any of the other political pages, I will focus on the names of the leaders, and not the titles that went before their names (like Dr, Honourable, General, Lieutenant, etc.). I am not trying to be rude or disrespectful, but titles change and are difficult to confirm, so that will not be my focus. This page summarizes the transition from military rule to democracy, basically starting from when Abacha died, until when Obasanjo took over. (For more details between Abacha's death, and the end of 1998, visit the old transition page.) *** Please remember that the information on this page is mostly factual rather than opinion. It does not express my views or beliefs. I simply try to summarize the zillions of news articles I receive that have to do with the transition.  On June 8 1998, Nigeria's ruler at the time, General Sani Abacha died of a heart attack, and he is mourned by few. The death and some information about his rule were widely broadcast, and you can get more information about that from many news sources. Abdulsalam Abubakar took his place, and initially was still promising a return to civilian rule in October (only then, Abacha could not be a candidate in the election, and definitely not the only one at that), and also set aside a month of mourning for Abacha. With the state of affairs the way they have been in the last few years, many kept hoping that things will improve from here on. Amnesty International, pro-democracy activists, and others were urging him to return to democracy and human rights. Right after taking power, Abubakar invited all exiles to return home to help in rebuilding the nation. Within days, he also started releasing some political prisoners, and with time released more and more (I don't think he ever released ALL of them, correct me if I'm wrong). At the beginning of July, Abiola, Diya and some of Diya's staff (whereas other people in Diya's staff have been released but reassigned) were still in prison, and on July 3rd, there were promises that ALL political prisoners (numbering more than 400), including Abiola would be released. Meanwhile, there were many cries for the release of Abiola from prison. Some thought Abiola should be instated as President since he won the last election, and others thought that was history and new elections should be held. Whether or not he intended to keep his claim to presidency was unclear (I'd read articles leaning towards both), but at any rate, people waited for his release from prison. However, on July 7th, at about 4 p.m. (Nigerian time) Abiola died of cardiac arrest after falling ill during a meeting with the U.S. Delegation, at the age of 60 (almost a month after Abacha died). Initially, there was an outraged nation, and many people suspected that he was poisoned, and there were demonstrations around the country leading to the death of over 55 people, and the arrest of over 400 others. Though Muslim tradition would require that a body be buried within 24 hours of death, the family agreed to an international autopsy (with doctors from the US and from Britain), with Abiola's doctors participating, to determine the exact cause of death, thus delaying his funeral. There were hopes that the findings would appease the family, supporters, and those who thought he was poisoned for political convenience. He was buried the same day of the autopsy, and according to the autopsy, he did die of natural causes, though he was definitely neglected while in prison. On July 20th, 1998, Abubakar released his transition plan. The highlight is that A NEW ELECTED PRESIDENT WILL BE SWORN IN ON MAY 29, 1999, in addition to taking the nation on a path of political and economic reform. You can read the full text of the speech here, but the key points were that:
Also, around the end of July in 1998, Babangida (the guy who was president, and annulled the elections that Abiola won) said that he accepts full blame for annulling the elections in 1993, saying that "What we did was wrong, but we tried to rationalize it." So far, I have not seen anything saying he revealed why he did so (especially since Abiola was supposedly also a friend of his), though I did see something where his son said he was under pressure to do so by some other generals (including Abacha, who was said "if power was ceded to a southerner like Chief Moshood Abiola, the north would have nothing left"). On September 11th, I read that The Joint Action Committee of Nigeria sued him in an effort to unravel the annulment of the election. On September 9th, 25 political parties registered for the elections. The officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said parties would be registered if the documents they submitted were genuine and if they had a following from different parts of the country. The list of those who have been granted provisional registration was released on September 24. To qualify for full registration in presidential and parliamentary elections, parties must then score more than 10 percent in two-thirds of Nigeria's 37 states in December 5 local government elections. Foreign Minister Ignatius Olisemeka attended the meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) that took place on October 8-9 (1998) in London. If you remember, Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth in 1995 after Abacha executed Ken Saro-Wiwa and the others. In October, they felt like Nigeria was definitely leading towards democracy, so they placed a temporary lift on sanctions but also decided that Nigeria will not be re-admitted until a civilian president is elected and in power. On September 22nd, it was announced that only about five of the 25 political parties that applied for provisional registration for elections met the requirements during verification. As a result, the INEC extended the party registration to October 12, thus extending the date for the release of provisionally registered parties to October 19. The INEC chairmain explained that the extension is at the request of many political associations and will not affect the time-frame of other activities under the current transition to civil rule process. Also, they informed the nation that registered users would be sent the approved parties as soon as the INEC receives it. On October 1st, Nigeria celebrated it's 38th year of independence. To mark it, Abubakar gave a speech which you can read here, in which he promised once again for the record, that he was committed to democracy, and also gave a speech on "Why I must quit". Voter registration for the elections began on Monday, October 5th. INEC distributed registration cards and other relevant documents to all the states, and warned against multiple registration or purchase of voter cards for electoral fraud, promising to go against any counter-efforts towards their goal of a fair election. Around this time, the first batch of exiles started returning home. On October 14th, to the joy of many, Wole Soyinka returned home for a visit. He had a full schedule along with an interview with Guardian, which you can read here. On Monday, October 19th, the INEC approved 9 out of the 25 political parties that registered. The approved parties were:
Not surprisingly, there were many attempts to rig the elections at different stages, and some arrests were made. As a result, 7 senior Commonwealth electoral experts provided technical assistance to the INEC. They assisted in planning, management, and training for the different stages of the election in hopes of conducting a fair election, and in hopes of improving the relations between the Commonwealth and Nigeria. Also, the INEC was asked to put a limit to the amount of money that an individual could donate to a political party, so that people would not be swayed by money. Early during the week of November 16th, the INEC began to screen the candidates for the local government elections (which were held December 5th). The screening ended on November 19th, and the successful candidates were announced on November 20th, and after a series of steps, the citizens were to vote on December 5. Public discussions on Nigeria's draft 1995 constitution began on November 30 and was to last through December 4. The debate was open to all Nigerians of all ages. It was overseen by a 25-member Constitutional Debate Coordinating Committee, whose responsibilities were to coordinate the debate, assemble views expressed, and submit it to the government by the end of the year. However, because of poor response by the Nigerian public (only 40 memoranda had been received by then), this deadline was extended to December 10th, hoping that the extension would give Nigerians more time to send their memoranda in. However, the committee had a deadline of December 31 to get back to the Federal Government. The local government elections took place on December 5th as planned, and in preparation, INEC declared beforehand that they had put in place a rig-proof strategy for the elections. Some of the measures taken included not allowing voters to leave the station until accredited (making it impossible for voters to accredit themselves at multiple polling stations), restriction of movement between 8 am and 2:30 pm, no inter-state movement, and no intra-state movement. Also, the Federal Government ordered the closure of the borders from 6 a.m. till 6 p.m. to prevent illegal immigrant who may have been recruited by politicians. The border patrols were warned to be extra vigilant to prevent foreigners from coming in to vote. (Of course, as the elections drew near, more violence erupted in different areas.) The INEC was quite impressed with the turnout at the elections. It was much higher than usual, and it showed the strength of support for a return to civilian rule (despite some boycotts from human rights groups). Considering the situation of things at the time, the elections were also relatively peaceful, and believed to be pretty fair. The official results of the elections were announced on Wednesday, December 9th. Not surprisingly, they confirmed that PDP was in the lead, followed by APP, and then by AD, and that the other parties did not receive enough to continue in the race, unless results from run-off polls on December 12 changed things (which they didn't). Legislative and governorship elections were held in January of 1999 (the primary elections for the candidates were held on Saturday, 19 December, 1998). You can find the results of those elections here. The presidential elections were held on February 27, 1999 and there were two main candidates at that time. One was Olusegun Obasanjo, and the other was Olu Falae (both are Yoruba). Jimmy Carter from the US went to Nigeria to monitor the election and verify that it was a fair election. I think the delegation there concluded that there was some rigging on both sides, but not enough to sway the results, which were that Olusegun Obasanjo won over 60% of the votes. At first, Olu Falae contested this, and wanted the election investigated. Eventually, he gave up amidst pressure that his protest would delay the transition date. Sometime in May, there were rumors that Obasanjo was dead. It was uncertain where these rumors originated, but it fell in line with a prophecy that a pastor had which implied that Obasanjo would not live to become president again. Once the rumors started, there were riots, and many died in the process, before Obasanjo emerged to say that he was alive and well, and preparing for the future of the nation. As the transition date drew nearer, there were many suspicions of the outgoing military government. Accusations that the federal reserve had dwindled, and that other things were being done which would cause quite a task for the incoming government. On May 29, 1999, the world watched as Obasanjo took over power from Abubakar. To read more about that, go to the next page. Back to Contents |
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