Nigeria - Politics

General Sani Abacha died suddenly in June 1998 and was replaced as head of state by Chief of Defence Staff General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who promised to return the country to civilian rule and released nine political prisoners including Olusegun Obasanjo.

Chief Moshood Abiola also died suddenly, in July 1998 while his release from detention was still being negotiated. He was 60 and, though some initially suspected foul play, an international team of pathologists who were called in to conduct an autopsy confirmed he died of natural causes. His health had however been adversely affected by the harsh detention conditions.

Abubakar dissolved the principal bodies associated with the Abacha regime’s democracy programme, released detainees, allowed unfettered political activity and published a new election timetable. A new Independent National Electoral Commission was set up in August 1998. As a result of the local government elections in December 1998, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), All People’s Party (APP) and Alliance for Democracy (AD) went forward to contest the state and federal elections. The PDP took 23 state governorships, APP eight and AD six.

In the National Assembly elections, PDP won nearly 60% of the seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The presidential election gave PDP candidate Chief Olusegun Obasanjo a convincing victory with 62% of the votes against 38% for joint APP/AD candidate Chief Oluyemi Falae. These federal elections were closely monitored by international, including Commonwealth, observers. Although cases of serious irregularities were noted, especially in the presidential poll, when the turnout figures were often inflated, they were not deemed to have brought the overall result into question.

In the wake of the elections, the departing military rulers published a new constitution. When Obasanjo became president in May 1999, Nigeria’s suspension from the Commonwealth was lifted.

The 1999 constitution, which permitted the practice of Sharia law for consenting Muslims, opened the way for some northern states – led by Zamfara State in October 1999 – to seek to implement it. This plunged the country into a heated controversy and some violence as Christians in these states were not convinced by assurances that it would not adversely affect them. This continued as the northern states successively adopted Sharia law. Zamfara was first to carry out an amputation in March 2000 and Sokoto first to sentence a woman to death by stoning for adultery in October 2001 (later revoked).

The democratic government faced many challenges to political stability, including corruption and intense ethnic and religious divisions resulting in widespread unrest. Its policy initiatives included an anti-corruption programme, efforts to pacify community protesters in the Niger Delta, a commission to investigate past human rights abuses, constitutional reform and a radical reorganisation of the armed forces, while it continued to pursue economic reforms, including privatisation.

In the first elections to be held under a civilian government in twenty years, in April 2003 Obasanjo and the PDP comfortably won presidential and National Assembly elections and did well in the governorship elections. Obasanjo was emphatically returned as president with 61.9% of the votes, his main rival, another former military leader, Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigeria People’s Party, polling 32.2%. There were many organisational problems and reports of attempts to frustrate the democratic process, and the All Nigeria People’s Party and others challenged the results. Commonwealth observers concluded that in most states most electors were able to vote freely and the results of the elections reflected the wishes of the people. However, in certain places ‘proper electoral processes appear to have broken down’ and, in Rivers State in particular, ‘there were widespread and serious irregularities and vote-rigging’.

Sultan of Sokoto Ibrahim Muhammadu Maccido died in a plane crash shortly after take-off from Abuja airport in October 2006 and was succeeded in November 2006 by his younger brother Colonel Muhammadu Sada Abubakar, Nigeria’s military attaché to Pakistan.

The ruling People’s Democratic Party candidate, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, won the April 2007 presidential election with 70% of the votes, defeating Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigeria People’s Party (19%) and Atiku Abubakar of Action Congress (7%). Turnout was low and the many national and international observers reported serious and widespread deficiencies in the election process, including late opening of polls. The national Transition Monitoring Group, comprising 50,000 observers, called for the presidential and simultaneous parliamentary elections to be cancelled and re-run.

Commonwealth observers concluded there were impediments to the full, free and fair expression of the will of voters and that an opportunity to build on the elections of 1999 and 2003 had been missed.