Adoption (date): (161)

Comment (161):

Timetable for transition to civilian rule in 1999
January 9th: State assembly and state governor elections.
February 20th: National assembly elections.
February 27th: Presidential election.
May 29th: Military formally hands over.

Legislative: (163A)

Executive: (163B)

Judicial: (163C)

1999 TILL DATE - BETWEEN THE NIGERIAN LABOUR CONGRESS, THE FEDERAL MINISTRIES OF LABOUR, FINANCE AND THE PRESIDENCY. NO FINAL AGREEMENT YET.

GNigeria's military leader, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who came to power in June 1998, has pledged to return the country to civilian rule by May 29th 1999, after two previous attempts by his military predecessors to restore democracy both floundered.

Soon after independence there were mounting ethnic and regional tensions, which came to a head in 1967 when the military governor of the Eastern region announced plans for secession and proclaimed the independence of the self-declared Republic of Biafra. This resulted in civil war, which lasted two and a half years. The end of the conflict did not mark a return of political stability, however, and the 1970s and 1980s saw a succession of military coups interrupted only by a brief period of civilian rule from 1979 to 1983. In 1979, after 13 years of military rule, elections were won by Shehu Shagari and his National Party of Nigeria (NPN). The civilian government proved incapable of tackling the country's growing problems and, despite being re-elected in flawed elections in 1983, was increasingly associated with economic mismanagement and corruption. The return of the military at the end of 1983 came as little surprise.
Under General Ibrahim Babangida, who assumed power in a bloodless coup in August 1985, there were significant changes, initially for the better. Nigeria was plunged into political crisis when General Babangida, citing irregularities, annulled the June 1993 presidential election, when Chief Moshood Abiola, a millionaire businessman from the south-west, seemed poised for victory. The poll was generally considered to be one of the fairest in Nigeria's history. When General Babangida finally surrendered power in August 1993, an interim national government (ING), headed by a prominent Yoruba businessman, Chief Ernest Shonekan, took office, with fresh elections promised for February 1994. In November 1993 General Sani Abacha, the minister for defence and the senior army officer, assumed power after Chief Shonekan had been encouraged to resign. He cancelled the timetable for civilian rule, dissolved the ING, the national and state assemblies and the state executive councils, together with the two registered political parties, and announced that supreme power would rest with an all-military Provisional Ruling Council (PRC).

After an initial lull in the political unrest, General Abacha faced increasing opposition from the pro-democracy movement. On the first anniversary of his apparent victory in the annulled 1993 presidential election, Chief Abiola proclaimed himself Nigeria's president. His subsequent arrest and detention on treason charges triggered two months of street protests and industrial strikes led by the oil unions.

General Abacha's increasing reliance on repression and manipulation to push through his programme to restore civilian rule-in which he seemed poised to secure his own election as constitutional president-proved extremely unpopular, plunging Nigeria deeper into crisis. Indeed, his unexpected death on June 8th 1998, apparently of a heart attack, was considered welcome. His replacement, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, the most senior military officer, quickly freed political prisoners and abandoned General Abacha's discredited framework for the restoration of civilian rule in favour of a fresh and more inclusive democratisation programme, culminating in an end to military rule on May 29th 1999. General Abubakar, a professional soldier with no evident political ambitions, won local and international support for his political reforms. However, the equally sudden death in July 1998 of Chief Abiola, also apparently of a heart attack, shortly before his expected release from detention, triggered anti-government demonstrations in his south-west homeland. The protests soon died down, however, and opposition politicians from the region accepted, albeit with criticism, General Abubakar's transition programme.

The goal of the CPI is to provide data on extensive perceptions of corruption within countries. This is a means of enhancing understanding of levels of corruption from one country to another. It does not attempt to assess the degree of corruption practiced by nationals outside their own countries. This is a separate phenomenon and a separate instrument, the Bribe Payers Propensity Index (BPI), is published this year for the first time.