Sani Abacha

Sani Abacha ((20 September 1943 – 8 June 1998) was a Nigerian Army General and politician who ruled as the military head of state after seizing power in 1993 until his death in 1998. Abacha's seizure of power was the last successful coup d'état in Nigerian military history.

He attended the Nigerian Military Training College in Kaduna, and was commissioned in 1963 after he had attended the Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot, England.

Abacha was involved in all the military coups in Nigeria during his military career.

In 1966, when he was still a second lieutenant with the 3rd Battalion in Kaduna, he took part in the July 1966 Nigerian counter-coup from the conceptual stage.

He could well have been a participant in the Lagos or Abeokuta phases of the coup the previous January as well.

In 1969, he fought during the Nigerian Civil War as a platoon and battalion commander.

He later became commander of the 2nd Infantry Division in 1975.

In 1983, Abacha was general officer commanding of the 2nd Mechanised Division, and was appointed a member of the Supreme Military Council.

In 1983, Abacha played a prominent role in the 1983 Nigerian coup d'état which brought General Muhammadu Buhari to power; and the 1985 Nigerian coup d'état which removed Buhari and brought General Ibrahim Babangida to power.

Abacha served as Chief of Army Staff from 1985 to 1990, as Chief of Defence Staff from 1990 to 1993, and as Minister of Defence.

Abacha is noted for having been the first Nigerian Army officer to attain the rank of a full military general without skipping a single rank.

His rule saw the achievement of several economic feats and also recorded human rights abuses and several political assassinations.

He has been dubbed a kleptocrat and a dictator by several modern commentators.

He was succeeded as Nigeria's head of state by General Abdulsalami Abubakar.

Abacha was born and brought up in Kano to a Kanuri family originally from present-day Borno State.

When General Ibrahim Babangida was named President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 1985, Abacha was named Chief of Army Staff.

He was later appointed Minister of Defence in 1990.

Abacha was the defence minister and most senior official within the military hierarchy during the crisis of the Third Republic.

He orchestrated the coup d'état of 1993 which overthrew the Interim National Government of Ernest Shonekan.

In his nationwide broadcast, Abacha portrayed the overthrow as an act of stability brought about through the socio-political uncertainties caused by the 1993 presidential election.

Abacha ruled as Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from 1993 to 1998.

He further abrogated Decree 691 of 1993.

Abacha assembled a personal security force of 3,000 men trained in North Korea.

Abacha's chief security officer Hamza al-Mustapha had an iron grip on the apparatus of military-security.

The Nigeria Police Force underwent a large scale retraining.

The state cracked down ruthlessly on criminals and dissidents, the National Democratic Coalition was attributed with several bombings across the country, and several members were arrested.

When Moshood Abiola proclaimed himself president, he was jailed for treason and subsequently died in custody.

Also, former military ruler Olusegun Obasanjo was jailed for treason and accused of plotting a coup together with General Oladipo Diya.

Abacha's administration oversaw an increase in the country's foreign exchange reserves from $494 million in 1993 to $9.6 billion by the middle of 1997, and reduced the external debt of Nigeria from $36 billion in 1993 to $27 billion by 1997.

Abacha also constructed between 25 and 100 km of urban road in major cities such as Kano, Gusau, Benin, Funtua, Zaria, Enugu, Kaduna, Aba, Lagos, Lokoja and Port Harcourt.

Abacha brought the privatisation programs of the Ibrahim Babangida administration to a halt, reduced an inflation rate of 54% inherited from Ernest Shonekan to 8.5% between 1993 and 1998, all while the nation's primary commodity, oil was at an average of $15 per barrel.

In September 1994, he issued a decree that placed his government above the jurisdiction of the courts effectively giving him absolute power.

Another decree gave him the right to detain anyone for up to three months without trial.

GDP growth, despite being estimated to be higher than the 2.2% growth in 1995, was largely limited to the petroleum sector.

The unprecedented economic achievements coincided with the rapid expansion of embezzlement hitherto unseen in the history of corruption in Nigeria in the alleged saga known as "Abacha loot".

Abacha's national security adviser, Alhaji Ismaila Gwarzo, was accused by the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo to have played a central role in the looting and transfer of money to overseas accounts.

In 1997, General Shehu Yar'Adua who was also jailed died in custody.

Abacha's regime was accused of human rights abuses, especially after the hanging of Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa (only one of several executions of Ogoni activists opposed to the exploitation of Nigerian resources by the multinational petroleum company, Royal Dutch Shell), whose death later led to the eviction of Nigeria from the Commonwealth Nations.

Wole Soyinka was charged in absentia with treason.

Abacha's regime suffered opposition externally by pro-democracy activists.