Military Rule and Oil
Gowon and the oil boom, the creation of states, the indigenisation decrees, Murtala Mohammed and Obasanjo, the 1979 return to civilian rule, the Second Republic and the 1983 coup, Buhari and Babangida, structural adjustment (1986), the annulled June 12, 1993 election, Abacha, the Ogoni and Ken Saro-Wiwa, oil's dominance of state revenue, and the transition of 1998-99.
Oil, coups and June 12
military and civilian governments, 1966-1999 1966-1975 Gowon oil boom; 12 states (1967), then 19 (1976) 1975-1976 Murtala Mohammed assassinated 1976 1976-1979 Obasanjo hands over to civilians 1979-1983 Shagari Second Republic; oil price falls 1983-1985 Buhari War Against Indiscipline 1985-1993 Babangida structural adjustment; annuls June 12, 1993 election (won by M.K.O. Abiola) 1993 Shonekan interim 1993-1998 Abacha repression; Saro-Wiwa executed 1995; dies 1998 1998-1999 Abubakar transition to the Fourth Republic
June 12, 1993: the presidential election, widely regarded as Nigeria's freest at the time, was won by M.K.O. Abiola and annulled by Babangida. Abiola was later imprisoned and died in detention in 1998. Since 2019, June 12 has been Nigeria's Democracy Day.
Max Siollun, Soldiers of Fortune: Nigerian Politics from Buhari to Babangida, 1983-1993 (2013); Karl Maier, This House Has Fallen (2000); Michael Watts on oil and the Delta; CBN and NNPC statistical bulletins.