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• the National Council of Nigerian and the Cameroons (NCNC) which had control of the Eastern Region led by Nnamdi Azikiwe
• the Northern People's Congress (NPC) which had control of the Northern Region, led by Ahmadu Bello
• the Action Group (AG) which had control of the Western Region, led by Obafemi Awolowo

When no party won a majority during the 1959 elections, the NPC combined with the NCNC to form a government, and when independence arrived in 1960, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was made the Prime Minister, and Nnamdi Azikiwe was made the Governor General.

As in most history, severe conflicts developed (started? or continued?). In 1962, part of the Action Group split off to form the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), led by S.I. Akintola. In 1963, the Mid-Western Region was formed from part of the Western Region.

When Nigeria became a Republic in 1963, Nnamdi Azikiwe was made the President of the Federal Republic. However, in 1964, there was great controversy over the 1963 population census, which the NCNC thought overestimated the number of people in the Northern Region to give them more of a representation in the federal parliament.

In January of 1966, some Igbo army officials staged a coup d'etat to overthrow the government, and some members of the army killed Balewa, Bello, Akintola, and some senior officers (Azikiwe was undergoing treatment outside of the country...I do not know if that is why he was not killed). They placed Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi in charge of the new military government (starting a long history of these it seems). Despite the fact that this coup was pretty bloody, the new government also promised a progressive program, a return to civilian rule determined by elections, and vowed to stamp out corruption and stop violence, and this appealed to a lot of youth. Also, Aguiyi-Ironsi tried to restore discipline within the army. He suspended the regional constitution with it's different regions, dissolved all legislative bodies, banned political parties, imprisoned Awolowo, and formed a Federal Military Government that was more central in nature (rather than having different regional rules).

A decree was issued in March of the same year to abolish the federation, and unify the federal and regional civil servants. True or not, there were many suspicions that Aguiyi-Ironsi favored the Igbos over other ethnic groups, and the fact that the military government did not prosecute the officers that killed the northern leaders stirred further rage. Though Aguiyi-Ironsi had some concessions like protecting the northerners from southern competition in the civil service, many northerners felt like the coup was a plot to make the Igbo's dominant in Nigeria, and many Muslims felt their religion was not being given full dues.

Fighting broke out for a while between the northerners and the Igbo, and in July of the same year, northern officers staged another coup, killing Aguiyi-Ironsi and many other Igbo officials. The Muslim officers chose Yakubu "Jack" Gowon (who was a Christian) as the new ruler. Gowon had not actually been involved in the coup, but they felt he would be a compromising candidate to head the Federal Military Government. His first steps included restoring Federalism, and releasing Awolowo from prison.

Gowon vowed to start Nigeria along the road to civilian government. However, now the Igbos were becoming more and more afraid of their position in Nigeria. In 1967, when Gowon moved to split the 4 existing regions into 12 states, Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, the leader of the Eastern Region refused to accept this, and declared that the Eastern Region would become it's own independent republic, named Biafra. This was not accepted, and in June 1967, a civil war broke out between Biafra and the remainder of Nigeria. This war lasted until Biafra surrendered in January of 1970.

In 1974, Gowon broke his promise to return the nation to civilian rule, and in July of 1975, there was another military coup to overtake him (Gowon was not killed, for a change. That also seemed to start a trend of non-bloody coups), and Murtala Muhammed took over rule, promising the continuation of a federal system of government, with constitutional law guaranteeing fundamental human rights, maximum participation, and orderly return to civilian rule. At this time, plans were already being made to move the national capital from Lagos to Nigeria, but at the time, it was draining on the economy.

In February of 1976, there was an attempted coup by Buka Dimka, and though it was unsuccessful, it was very bloody, and Muhammed was killed. So, Olusegun Obasanjo was chosen to take his place as the new ruler, and promised to continue what Muhammed had started. During his term, he raised University fees, and this led to student riots (which have also become quite common it seems). Then the government banned student organizations, restricted public opposition to the regime, controlled union activity, nationalized land, and increased oil industry regulation. However, in 1978, another thing he did was to set up a new constitution that would return the country to civilian rule (a promise that had been going on for over 12 years), and elections were (finally) held in 1979.

Shehu Shagari was named the new president in the 1979 elections, though many felt that he did not meet the requirements for winning. He stayed in power for his entire term, and when the new elections were held in 1983, he won again, but so many people were so convinced that the elections were rigged (many believe that Obafemi Awolowo won...though Awolowo never ruled the nation, he made a lot of good contributions to the country, and when he died in 1987, he was highly mourned and many tributes went out to him. There is a short biography of him here), that violence erupted in many areas, and every election was contested in court.

This probably set the stage for another coup that took place on December 31 1983 (though I believe there was an attempted coup in 1982 by Buka Mandara that failed), and this one was actually quite welcome at the time, because many felt that the nation had further deteriorated into more shameless corruption and economic mismanagement. Muhammadu Buhari was named the new leader, and he set out to try to revive the economy, and this took priority over everything else, including returning the country to civilian rule (he also placed Shagari under house arrest). He also took security of the government as a high priority, restricted freedom of the press, suppressed criticism of the government, and outlawed many organizations. In addition, he declared a War Against Indiscipline to deal with such aspects as public behavior, sanitation, public appearance, corruption, smuggling, and patriotism. He also took many other measures of austerity that made it difficult for some companies to run, and this eventually led to high inflation, and life becoming pretty expensive to live, and they were very inflexible in their approach, and this started to breed more discontent.

Yet another coup that took place on August 27, 1985. This time Ibrahim Babangida (Buhari's chief of army staff before the coup) was named the ruler. (Buhari was not killed.) Also, in the past, Babangida had led the powers that crushed the attempted coup of Buka Dimka. It is also suspected that he had taken part in all coups in Nigeria at the time. One of the reasons he rebelled against Buhari was that he claimed that Buhari's regime was insensitive to the feelings of the Nigerian masses, especially through the restricted press freedom.

He started his rule claiming to be a human rights activist, but this image faded with time. Though he released some of the politicians that Buhari incarcerated, he also hounded opposition interest groups, and detained many radical people for various offenses, and even had a decree to facilitate some oppressive acts.

Economically, Babangida introduced market reforms, freeing exchange and interest rates, and this led to a sharp drop in the value of the Nigerian currency, while raising lending rates to more than 40 percent.

In April of 1986, there was another attempted coup by Mamman Vatsa, and he and his followers were executed.

On April 22, 1990, there was another attempted coup by Gideon Orkar that failed, but almost killed Babangida whose bedroom had been bombed. Unlike the other coups, this coup was believed to have been heavily funded by civilians, suggesting that they were willing to have another military ruler over the current military government.

Per a new constitution that was set up in 1990, the country was to return to civilian rule in 1992. As the date approached, there were many suspicions that this promise was not going to be kept. Pressure started mounting on them, and finally, in 1992, they allowed an election to take place. However, the Babangida government annulled the results of that election, claiming fraud, and postponed redoing the elections for a year. Another election was held in June of 1993, and on June 12 of 1993, the winner was declared to be Moshood Abiola. Babangida again claimed fraud, and annulled the results of this election, which was believed to be the first fair election held in the history of Nigeria. There became a lot of unrest in the nation, hundreds of demonstrators were killed, human rights and pro-democracy activists were arrested, and opposition newspapers were shut down. The pressure mounted anyway, and finally on August 27, 1993, Babangida resigned, and appointed Ernest Shonekan, a civilian, in place as the ruler.

Shonekan's rule was the shortest in history, lasting less than 3 months, when he was overthrown by Sani Abacha on November 17, 1993 (Shonekan was not killed). Abacha is believed to have been instrumental in both the 1983 and the 1985 coups, and was Babangida's defense minister.

Sani Abacha is probably the most 'famous' president of Nigeria, and the publicity of Nigeria substantially increased during his rule, because of his brutality (and if you've read this far, you already know that Nigeria's government history was nothing peaceful, fair, or happy to begin with), and the arrest or execution of any critics of his government, no matter who they were. I'll try to get to some of that below, but there are so many....Prisoners of Conscience is a partial list of some of the notable people imprisoned and/or executed, and as of July 1997, already had 64 names of internationally-known prisoners, and does not include people killed in their fight (I think the list focuses on those imprisoned...it is known that many fighters for democracy were killed in the fight), or the other hundreds in jail that were not internationally known.

Initially, Abacha promised to return the government to civilian rule within two years. In the meantime, he dismantled all elected institutions, terminated all national and state assemblies, closed independent publications, banned all political activity, and suspended the constitution.

On June12, 1994, Abiola (the guy who won the June 12, 1993 elections annulled by Babangida), backed by politicians, retired army brass, and pro-democracy activists, proclaimed himself as the president. He was imprisoned on charges of treason, and in 1996, he was placed in solitary confinement.

After the 1994 arrest, one of Abiola's wives (if you didn't know, men are allowed multiple wives in Nigeria, and Muslims are allowed up to 4), Kudirat Abiola, launched a campaign for democracy and human rights. She held pro-democracy rallies, defied the military decree banning political associations, presented victims of military repression to international fact-finding missions, inspired many other people, especially women, and won the "Woman of the Year" awards in both 1994 and 1995. However, on June 4, 1996, she was assassinated, and it is believed that this was ordered by (guess who?). She is fondly remembered, and you can find out more about her at the Kudirat Institute for Nigerian Democracy.

Also in 1994, there was supposed to be an arrest of Wole Soyinka (the 1986 Nobel Prize winner in Literature) but he was tipped off, and he escaped, but Abacha still charged him in absentia with treason, and this is punishable by death, and he was in exile for the remainder of Abacha's life.

In 1995, Abacha announced a three-year program of transition to civilian rule.

On March 1, 1995 there was another attempted coup by Lawan Gwadabe. Also suspected as part of this coup were Olusegun Obasanjo (a previous president) and Shehu Musa Yar'Adua. They were sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment for this. Yar'Adua died while in prison, and Obasanjo was there for the remainder of Abacha's life. Also arrested sometime in 1995 was Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti, a human rights activist who had been repeatedly arrested and released, but this time was charged with treason, and sentenced to life imprisonment, which was later reduced to 15 years, even against High Court rulings, and Amnesty International. He was also in jail for the remainder of Abacha's life.

Also in 1995, was the trouble with the Ogoni people. This is discussed in slightly more detail on the history page, but basically, Ken Saro-Wiwa (an environmentalist and playwright) criticized the Nigerian government for the environmental damages being inflicted on the land inhabited by the Ogoni people, due to the oil industry. Saro-Wiwa and 8 other leaders were arrested on charges of conspiring to slay political opponents (which many people believe to be false, the real reason being the struggles for the land pollution). On October 31, 1995, all 9 leaders were sentenced to death by hanging. Opposition for this sentence and an appeal for mercy came from all over the world, including the Commonwealth, and Nelson Mandela. However, on November 10, they were hung anyway. This stunned the world, and led to the suspension of Nigeria from the Commonwealth, and Mandela called for international sanctions against Nigerian oil, which account for more than 90 percent of the foreign currency earnings.

Of course, this hurt the already bleeding economy, and Abacha tried to improve his image by portraying Nigeria as a regional peacemaker, and in 1996, even aided with a peace agreement that ended Liberia's 7-year civil war and made a way for elections in Liberia. Also, when a military coup took place in Sierra Leone, Abacha stepped in, and sent his army on a military assault to restore the democratically elected government. With these acts, people started to become more confident that he would return Nigeria to a democratic rule as he had promised.

On December 21, 1997, there was supposedly another attempted coup on the Abacha government by Oladipo Diya, and he was imprisoned (Supposedly because some believe a coup was attempted and that he did lead it, and others believe the entire coup plot was a setup to imprison Diya and some other people....Diya used to be Abacha's right-hand man). In April of 1998, Diya, 4 other officers, and a civilian were sentenced to death because of this attempted coup, while many others were sentenced to prison terms of varying lengths. As of June 11, 1998, the sentence had not been carried out. (So, while in office, Abacha was able to stop both attempted coups against him. Also, I read someplace that he is believed to have been instrumental in foiling both of the attempted coups while Babangida was in office.)

Elections to return to civilian rule were set for August 1 of 1998, with a return date to civilian rule set for October 1, 1998. However, in April, Abacha became the only nominated candidate for the presidency. Opposition to his rule had been mounting more and more in recent months, because it was suspected that he did not intend to step down. Demonstrations and riots broke out, and many were killed.

On June 8, 1998 Abacha died of a heart attack at the age of 54. Some people commented that his death fell directly between the June 4 assassination of Kudirat Abiola in 1996 and the annulled elections of June 12 of 1993.

After Abacha died, Abdulsalam Abubakar took his place, and set up a transition program that would lead the country back to democracy by May 29, 1999.

After a series of elections, Olusegun Obasanjo was declared the new democratically elected president, and he took his place as the new civilian president on May 29, 1999.