As Nigeria celebrates her 62nd year of independence from British colonial Masters, we at Bizwatch Nigeria have chosen to take you down memory lane as we review some key events that will not be forgotten in our chequered past.
The Beginning
Nigeria gained independence on October 1, 1960. Nnamdi Azikiwe (“Zik”) was the first indigenous Governor-General from 1960 to 1963 and the first President from 1963 to 1966. At the time of independence, the Nigerian government was made up of three ethnic states joined in a federation.
Each state was ruled by a single major ethnic-based party. Northern Cameroonians opted to join Nigeria on February 11 and 12, 1961. Northern Cameroon was renamed Sarduana Province of Nigeria, the thirteenth province of Northern Nigeria.
Nnamdi Azikiwe was the second and final Governor-General of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963, and the first President of Nigeria from 1963 to 1966, holding the presidency throughout the Nigerian First Republic. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, who was re-elected Prime Minister in 1964, led a coalition administration. On October 1, 1963, Nigeria became the First Republic under a British parliamentary system, breaking away from the British monarchy.
In 1964, the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) joined forces with the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), a breakaway section of the Action Group (AG) led by Chief Ladoke Akintola, to establish the Nigerian National Alliance (NNA) to partake in elections.
The violence in the western area erupted in November 1965, when Igbo civil workers of the Hausa-dominated federal government represented authority to the Yoruba people.
The Fall of the First Republic and Civil War (1966-1983)
On January 15, 1966, Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu led Nigeria’s first-ever military coup, which resulted in the deaths of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of Northern Nigeria, Chief S.I. Akintola, Premier of Western Region, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Prime Minister of Nigeria, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, Federal Minister of Finance, and another military General Aguiyi Ironsi was elected president.
On May 29, 1966, riots began in the major towns of Northern Nigeria against the Igbo minority, and almost 30,000 people were murdered. On July 29, 1966, a gang of Northern officers and soldiers invaded and killed General Aguiyi Ironsi and his host, Lt. Col Adekunle Fajuyi, at the Government House in Ibadan. On August 1, 1966, Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon proclaimed to the country a takeover of the government.
On May 30, 1967, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the military administrator of the Eastern Region, declared the breakaway of the Eastern states as the Republic of Biafra, launching a 30-month deadly civil war that killed over a million people. Phillip Effiong, the commander in charge of the Biafran administration, asked for a cease-fire in the early hours of January 12, 1970, which resulted in the region’s reintegration into Nigeria.
On July 25, 1975, while attending the OAU meeting in Uganda, Yakubu Gowon was deposed in a coup orchestrated by Murtala Ramat Mohammed. General Murtala Ramat Mohammed was announced President.
Murtala Mohammed was killed in a botched coup attempt on February 13, 1976. Olusegun Obasanjo, his deputy, took over. The restriction on political action was repealed on September 21, 1978, when a new constitution was modelled after the American presidential system was released. In 1979, the country went to the polls for a general election, and Shehu Shagari was elected as the country’s first executive democratic president.
The military executed a successful and bloodless coup on December 31, 1983, and Muhammad Buhari led the military administration. Many politicians were imprisoned. However, less than two years later, on August 27, 1985, Ibrahim Babangida took control in a bloodless coup and halted all political activity.
The June 12 Election Annulment (1991-1995)
On December 12, 1991, Nigeria’s capital city was relocated from Lagos to Abuja. On June 12, 1993, Nigeria had what was considered the most peaceful election in history, however, the presidential elections won by businessman Moshood Abiola were invalidated by then-military President Ibrahim Babangida.
Following widespread opposition to his government, Babangida handed up power to the Interim National Government led by Ernest Shonekan on August 27, 1993. He stated that he was stepping down. Sani Abacha took control from the Interim National Government and crushed dissent, and MKO Abiola, the acknowledged winner of the June 12 election, was detained after declaring himself president.
Transition to Democracy (1996-2000)
Abacha died on June 8, 1998, under questionable circumstances, and was replaced by another military general, Abdulsalami Abubakar. Chief MKO Abiola died in jail one month later, on July 7, 1998, only days after seeing a US delegation. General Abubakar held elections the same year (1999), and former Military General Olusegun Obasanjo, who had previously been imprisoned for a purported coup, won and became the nation’s president. He was sworn in as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on May 29, 1999.
Till Date (2001-2022)
In 2001, a tribal battle displaced hundreds of people in Benue State, when troops ordered to end the violence massacred more than 200 unarmed villagers, ostensibly in reprisal for the kidnapping and death of 19 soldiers. Many lives were lost in four days of protest in November 2002, fueled by Northern Nigerian rage over the scheduled Miss World beauty contest in Abuja. Nigeria’s first satellite, Nigeria-Sat-1, was launched into orbit by a Russian rocket on September 27, 2003.
Plateau State announced a state of emergency on May 18, 2004, after more than 200 people were slain in Yelwa in what would culminate in bosom-for-tat massacres by Muslims and Christians in the state.
Boko Haram and the kidnapping of almost 200 schoolgirls
Boko Haram’s escalating extremism culminated in a violent insurrection in July 2009, during which its leader was ruthlessly killed. Following a huge jail release in September 2010, its surprise revival was backed by more sophisticated assaults, initially against soft targets but developing in 2011 to encompass suicide bombings of police headquarters and the United Nations office in Abuja.
The declaration of a state of emergency by the government in early 2012, which was later expanded to encompass the whole northeast of Nigeria, resulted in an upsurge in both security force abuse and terrorist assaults. At least 250,000 of the 2.3 million individuals affected by the fighting since May 2013 have fled to Cameroon, Chad, or Niger.
By 2014, Boko Haram had killed approximately 6,600 people. In April 2014, the organization committed numerous abductions, notably the kidnapping of 276 Chibok schoolgirls. Corruption and abuses in the security forces have impeded efforts to quell the protests.
President Umaru Yar’Adua travelled to Saudi Arabia in 2009 for Pericarditis treatment. His extended absence triggered a constitutional crisis, sparking calls for his resignation. The National Assembly voted on February 10, 2010, to assign authority to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan until Mr Yar’Adua could resume work under the ‘Doctrine of Necessity.’ He returned to Nigeria on May 2, 2010, but died on May 5. Goodluck Jonathan, who had been serving in Yar’Adua’s stead, took over.
In April 2011, Goodluck Jonathan ran for office and won. However, his re-election effort in 2015 was thwarted by the rise of former military ruler General Muhammadu Buhari, owing mostly to his inability to quiet increasing insecurity in the country and combat corruption, which had become a major threat in Nigeria.
The All Progressive Congress, APC’s General Muhammadu Buhari, was proclaimed the victor of the 2015 presidential elections. On May 29, 2015, Jonathan acknowledged defeat and handed over authority to Buhari in a peaceful transition of power. Nigeria enters an economic crisis in June 2016 as crude oil prices fell and terrorists started targeting oil pipelines, lowering Nigeria’s production capacity and its sole major source of money.
