Modern Nigeria dates back to 1914, when British colonial masters merged the colony of Lagos with the protectorates of northern and southern Nigeria, but it was on October 1, 1960 that the country gained its independence and became a republic in 1963.
Nigeria has followed a parliamentary form of government. Executive powers were first vested in the Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, while Nnamdi Azikiwe became president, a largely ceremonial position.
The country was divided into 3 regions: North, South, and East, each governed by a prime minister.
Nigeria had a bicameral parliament at the national level, founded in Lagos, while the region had its own unicameral parliament.
Tafawa Balawa’s leadership ruled the country for six years before being overthrown by the army in 1966. Maj. Gen. Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi took over as head of state, but his tenure was short-lived; Colonel Yakubu Gowon staged a counter-coup and assumed leadership of the country.
Aguiyi-Ironsi’s retreat led to the Nigerian Civil War when Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka “Emeka” Odumegwu-Ojukwu led some army officers and identified the breakaway Republic of Biafra in 1967, an action that resulted in the deaths of thousands of people. of people.
Colonel Gowon, originally from the North, led the Nigerian army’s offensive against Biafra. Its name, ‘Gowon’, comes from the acronym for ‘Go On With One Nigeria’. The Biafran War ended on January 15, 1970.
Gowon declared at the end of the war that “there is no victor or vanquished. “He imposed the policy of the 3 R’s: rehabilitation, reintegration and reconstruction of the Ibos, the majority population of the southeastern region of Nigeria who had supported Biafran independence.
Since 1970, Nigeria has experienced a succession of military regimes led successively by Murtala Muhammed/Olusegun Obasanjo, Muhammadu Buhari/Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, Sani Abacha/Abdusalami Abubakar.
Since the coup that ended the country’s first republic, each and every administration has been created with the stated goal of fighting corruption and righting the wrongs of the previous government, but they have turned out worse than previous administrations.
Yakubu Gowon’s government, despite the civil war, experienced an oil boom and built massive infrastructure, but refused to cede force to a civilian administration, which led to its overthrow through the Murtala-Obasanjo regime.
General Murtala Muhammed’s tenure as head of state of the army lasted shortly after his assassination, but Obasanjo assumed power and ceded power to Shehu Shagari in 1979. It was Murtala’s administration that first purged corrupt officials and also introduced a plan to move power out of the country. capital. in Abuja, which was completed under the command of the army’s head of state, Ibrahim Babangida.
The Second Shehu Shagari Republic ended after the 1983 elections. The opposition denounced fraud, and the military cited corruption among government officials as an explanation for its coup.
Muhammadu Buhari’s military leadership jailed many politicians for alleged corruption, but an internal coup toppled Buhari 20 months after he came to power. Ibrahim Babangida, President.
Many Nigerians believe that Babangida’s administration institutionalized corruption among public officials.
The government also benefited from the oil boom that followed the Iraq war, but the millions of dollars of oil sales were never accounted for through the administration.
Babangida can be credited with creating infrastructure and moving the national capital, eventually, from Lagos to Abuja.
His plan to create a civil administration failed. In the years that followed, Nigeria was hit by further political turmoil, with a military coup after preventing the advent of civilian rule.
In 1993, it was widely thought that MKO leader Abiola had won the presidential election. Under pressure, he resigned and installed an unconvincing interim government led by Chief Ernest Shonekan.
Inevitably, Shonekan was soon overthrown through another senior officer, this time General Sani Abacha.
Under Abacha, Nigeria faced sanctions and tensions to establish a civilian administration.
After Abacha’s death, budgets worth millions of dollars were discovered in various banks around the world. Efforts are under way to repatriate the stolen money.
General Abdusalami Abubakar organized the 1999 elections and Olusegun Obasanjo was elected president. Obasanjo became a civilian president and worked hard to revive Nigeria on the outside stage. He managed to get debt forgiveness, which gave Nigeria some breathing room, but it was one of his main mistakes. It was their inability to supply enough energy, despite spending $30 million, a fact that still haunts the country.
Obasanjo’s successor, Umaru Musa Yar Adua, did not live long due to health problems and was replaced by Goodluck Jonathan.
Jonathan’s tenure marked the Boko Haram insurgency, which continues to cause death and destruction in the north of the country to this day. One of the most traumatic episodes was the abduction of more than 250 Chibok schoolchildren, some of whom have yet to be found.
Corruption scandals have tarnished Jonathan’s tenure.
The Buhari administration, despite its promise to fight corruption, is faring little better than previous governments. It also faces the ongoing risk of Boko Haram.
Prior to the discovery of oil, the pillars of the Nigerian economy were agriculture, tin, and iron ore such as columbite. Oil revenues have been used through successive administrations to build infrastructure.
But oil has a curse for Nigeria, as governments have bypassed agriculture and other potentials for progress to rely heavily on the commodity, the revenues of which have created widespread corruption among government officials.
Poor leadership, widespread corruption, ethnic rivalries and conflicts, and religious crises are some of the major obstacles that have hindered Nigeria’s progress and generated mistrust and suspicion among the population.
The arrival of militancy from the Niger Delta, the Odua People’s Congress, the OPC organization in the southwest, the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast, armed bandits in the northwest, recurrent clashes between herders and farmers in central Nigeria and kidnappings for ransom, have led to the murder of thousands of people and also shaken the institutional foundations of the country.
At 60 years old, Nigeria has yet to realize its full potential as a united entity, while teams and sectors of the country continue to call for a national convention to renegotiate the foundations of Nigerian unity.
Even with the existing democratic regime, some other people feel that they are not represented at the time decisions are made, hence the continued agitation for meetings to address the problems that threaten the very ways of life of the country.