In June 1998, a broke ex-general walks out of a Nigerian prison cell. Eleven months later, he's the president of Africa's most populous nation and almost none of it was his idea.This is episode 12 of Power & Plunder, a documentary series chronicling every head of state Nigeria has had since independence on October 1, 1960. My Sources:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cuIY0z8rQzHn-JazubvhSIAflXzgmrJKfsTw3_24jVM/edit?usp=sharingYou can now support my work by donating here: https://judebela.com/donate

General Abdulsalami Abubakar presided over the most consequential 11 months in modern Nigerian history. A compressed, turbulent, and deeply contradictory transition from military dictatorship to civilian rule that began with one suspicious death, was punctuated by another, and ended with a flawed election that nonetheless inaugurated the Fourth Republic. This is episode 11 of Power and Plunder, a 16-episode documentary series chronicling every head of state Nigeria has had since independence on October 1, 1960. Each episode covers a single leader — from the moment they seized or received power to the moment they lost it or gave it away.My Sources:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V_3OgXoCgdxEhZRY6Y4uK86TYwPECvJ79RFqvMFD2NU/edit?usp=sharing

General Sani Abacha ruled Nigeria from November 17, 1993 until his death on June 8, 1998 — a period that produced the worst human rights abuses, the most brazen kleptocracy, and the deepest international isolation in the country's post-independence history. This is the story of how he did it all.This is Episode 10 of Power & Plunder — a 16-part series covering every head of state Nigeria has had since independence. Built on declassified British and American archives, court records, and primary sources.My sources:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z_OUKYYuVwQuqO3N94PzomQxFWWxIo9Of48wlJl6dhI/edit?usp=sharing

When Nigeria's military dictator, Ibrahim Babangida annulled Africa's freest election in 1993 and installed a corporate boardroom chairman as a civilian placeholder, the 83-day presidency that followed was a meticulously engineered trap designed to hand power to the one general who had been positioning himself for it all along.This is the story of The 83-Day President Nigeria Tried To Forget.This is Episode 9 of Power & Plunder — a 16-part series covering every head of state Nigeria has had since independence. Built on declassified British and American archives, court records, and primary sources.My Sources:https://docs.google.com/document/d/10ocwgCCOdOpcyQVV738wlIYRy4aDBM26dxQcwVwlhwg/edit?usp=sharing

How did one military officer hold power for eight years, preside over the disappearance of $12.4 billion, build Africa's most sophisticated system of political corruption, annul the freest election his country ever held, and retire to a mansion without ever being prosecuted?This is the story of Ibrahim Babangida, the Smiling Dictator Who Stole Nigeria’s DemocracyThis is Episode 8 of Power & Plunder — a 16-part series covering every head of state Nigeria has had since independence. Built on declassified British and American archives, court records, and primary sources.

Between December 1983 and August 1985, Nigeria endured one of the most brutal military governments in Africa. It jailed 100s of politicians, executed drug offenders under retroactive law, attempted to kidnap a former minister from London using Israeli intelligence operatives, imprisoned Fela Kuti, and lost a power struggle that was rigged from day one.This is the story of Dictator Nigeria wants to Forget. This is Episode 7 of Power & Plunder — a 16-part series covering every head of state Nigeria has had since independence. Built on declassified British and American archives, court records, and primary sources.My Sources:https://docs.google.com/document/d/18zZHAPXMjmATeTniGpKHzpKAmoJiTdV2p_e7DCGymuQ/edit?usp=sharing

Shehu Shagari, a gentle, scholarly Fulani teacher who never truly sought the presidency, presided over a republic that squandered an estimated $16 billion in oil wealth, expelled two million West African migrants, rigged its own re-election so blatantly that citizens cheered when soldiers arrived, and ended with a brigadier shot dead in a predawn firefight at the presidential villa. This is Episode 6 of Power & Plunder — a 16-part series covering every head of state Nigeria has had since independence. Built on declassified British and American archives, court records, and primary sources.My Sources:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ng-sWHPdSHvLKOjFyM5MMtPCDFbB1EbEGk-9BJwHcKs/edit?usp=sharing

He inherited a traumatized state reeling from the assassination of Murtala Mohammed, and handed over to an elected civilian president, becoming the first African military ruler to voluntarily surrender power. But before walking away, what he did with that absolute power was interesting.This is Episode 5 of Power & Plunder — a 16-part series covering every head of state Nigeria has had since independence. Built on declassified British and American archives, court records, and primary sources.My Sources:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TA-eY7ndJ0qzsgBnFpyIjA45OBxii71BLl1ZqpYqD4M/edit?usp=sharing

A 37-year-old Hausa-Fulani military officer from Kano, he came to power in a bloodless coup and was assassinated in a Lagos traffic ambush led by Lt. Col. Buka Suka Dimka exactly 33 days after delivering his famous "Africa Has Come of Age" speech at the OAU, in which he directly confronted the United States over Angola. Declassified US State Department documents reveal that Washington viewed Murtala as "erratic, vainglorious, impetuous, corrupt, vindictive, intelligent, articulate, daring" and that American intelligence-gathering on Nigeria intensified dramatically during his tenure.This is Episode 4 of Power & Plunder — a 16-part series covering every head of state Nigeria has had since independence. Built on declassified British and American archives, court records, and primary sources.My Sources:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VCKhBbuhG0-LFqfizrNL75S0H0PAiicW2GsuLgxdMlI/edit?usp=sharing

Yakubu Gowon inherited a nation soaked in the blood of two coups. He then presided over a civil war that killed up to two million people. His government oversaw an incredible oil boom that turned Nigeria from a groundnut exporter into a petro-state. Yet he watched as the system around him became the most corrupt government Nigeria had ever seen.This is the story of how trust built a presidency — and destroyed it.This is Episode 3 of Power & Plunder — a 16-part series covering every head of state Nigeria has had since independence. Built on declassified British and American archives, court records, and primary sources.My Sources:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L_bgWkzUOq6hQre9wVoEEt7qdYFcRk9D9euVevmaF48/edit?usp=sharing