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Revision as of 23:34, 8 June 2014 by Alaminalpha (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| General Sani Abacha | |
|---|---|
| File:Sani Abacha.jpg | |
| 10th Head of State of Nigeria | |
| In office November 17, 1993 – June 8, 1998 | |
| Preceded by | Ernest Shonekan |
| Succeeded by | Abdulsalami Abubakar |
| Chief of Army Staff (Nigeria) | |
| In office August 1985 – August 1990 | |
| Preceded by | Ibrahim Babangida |
| Succeeded by | Salihu Ibrahim |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1943-09-20)20 September 1943 Kano, Nigeria |
| Died | 8 June 1998(1998-06-08) (aged 54) Abuja, Nigeria |
| Political party | none (military) |
| Spouse | Maryam Abacha |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | Nigerian Army |
| Years of service | 1963–1998 |
| Rank | General |
General Sani Abacha (20 September 1943 – 8 June 1998) was a Nigerian soldier and politician who served as the de facto President of Nigeria from 1993 to 1998. Abacha's regime is one of the most controversial in Nigeria's history. Although it saw dramatic economic growth, it also witnessed widespread human rights abuses.
Early life and education
A Kanuri from Borno by tribe, Abacha was born and brought up in Kano, Nigeria. He attended the Nigerian Military Training College and Mons Officer Cadet School before being commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in 1963.Abacha's regime became the first to record unprecedented economic achievements: he oversaw an increase in the country's foreign exchange reserves from $494 million dollars in 1993 to $9.6 billion by the middle of 1997, reduced the external debt of Nigeria from $36 billion in 1993 to $27 billion by 1997, brought all the controversial privatization programs of the Babangida administration to halt, reduced an inflation rate of 54% inherited from Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida to 8.5% between 1993 and 1998, all while the nation's primary commodity, oil was at an average of $15 per barrel. His administration is also credited with creating the most comprehensive and realistic blueprint for Nigeria's development through the Vision 2010 committee chaired by his predecessor Ernest Shonekan.
Military career
Abacha was commissioned in 1963, after he had attended the Mons Defence Officers cadet Training College in Aldershot, England. Before then, he had attended the Nigerian Military Training College in Kaduna. Abacha's Military career is distinguished with a string of successful coups. He is by some records the most successful coup plotter in the history of Nigeria's military. He took part in the countercoup of July 1966, from the conceptual stage, and may have been a participant in the Lagos or Abeokuta phases of the January 1966 coup. He was also a prominent figure in every single successful coup in Nigerian history, two of which brought and removed General Muhammadu Buhari from power in 1983. 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.
On November 17, 1993, Abacha overthrew the short-lived transitional government of Chief Ernest Shonekan. 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.
Human rights abuses
Abacha's government was accused of human rights abuses, especially after the hanging of Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa by the Oputa Commission (only one of several executions of Ogoni activists opposed to the exploitation of Nigerian resources by the multinational petroleum company, Royal Dutch Shell Group); Moshood Abiola and Olusegun Obasanjo were jailed for treason, and Wole Soyinka charged in absentia with treason. His regime suffered opposition externally by pro-democracy activists. He however supported the Economic Community of West African States and sent Nigerian troops to Liberia and Sierra Leone to help restore democracy to those countries. Despite being repeatedly condemned by the US State Department, Abacha did have a few ties to American politics. In 1997, Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) travelled to Nigeria to meet with Abacha as a representative of "The Family", a group of evangelical Christian politicians and civic leaders. Abacha and The Family had a business and political relationship from that point until his death. Abacha also developed ties with other American political figures such as Senator Carol Mosley Braun, Rev. Jessie Jackson and Minister Louis Farrakhan. Several African American political leaders visited Nigeria during his reign and Farrakhan supported his administration.
Corruption allegations
Abacha's Administration was marred by numerous allegations of corruption. A preliminary report published by the Abdulsalam Abubakar transitional government in November 1998 indicted a number of officials from his administration of corruption.
In March, 2014, the United States Department of Justice revealed that it had frozen more than $458 million believed to have been illegally obtained by Abacha aides.
Death
Early in 1998, Abacha announced that elections would be held that August, with a view toward handing power to a civilian government on 1 October. It soon became apparent, though, that Abacha had no intention of permitting an honest election; by April he had strong-armed the country's five parties into endorsing him as the sole presidential candidate.
Abacha died in June 1998 while at the presidential villa in Abuja. He was buried on the same day, according to Muslim tradition, without an autopsy. This fueled speculation that he may have been executed extrajudicially by way of being poisoned by political rivals via prostitutes. On the contrary, the government cited his cause of death as a sudden heart attack. It is reported that he was in the company of two Indian prostitutes imported from Dubai. It is thought that these prostitutes laced his drink with a poisonous substance, making Abacha feel unwell around 4:30am. He retired to his bed and was dead by 6:15am.
After Abacha's death, Maj. Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, Nigeria's defense chief of staff, was sworn in as the country's head of state. Abubakar had never before held public office and was quick to announce a transition to democracy, which led to the election of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Abacha was married to Maryam Abacha and had seven sons and three daughters. He has fifteen grandchildren — eight girls and seven boys.
Recovery of stolen funds
After Sani Abacha's death, the Obasanjo government implicated Abacha and his family in a wholesale looting of Nigeria's coffers. The late dictator's son, Mohammed Abacha, continues to maintain that all the assets in question were legitimately acquired. In 2002, Abacha's family purportedly agreed to return $1.2 billion that was taken from the central bank.
Legacy
General Abacha is credited with restoring Nigeria's standing as an African Power when he twice ordered the Nigerian Military to Intervene and restore the civilian and Democratic governments of Sierra Leone and Liberia after a series of Military Coups in both countries.
False representation of name
The names of Sani Abacha, his wife Maryam, and son Mohammed are often used in advance fee fraud (419) scams; he is "identified" in scam letters as the source for "money" that does not exist. One website that is dedicated to exposing advance fee scammers and similar schemes, ebolamonkeyman.com, exposed one use of the Abacha family name—resulting in a wider exposure and awareness of these types of scams in general.
References
- Paden, John N. (2005) Muslim Civic Cultures and Conflict Resolution, Brookings Institution Press. p. 240. ISBN 0-8157-6817-6.
- "Biography". Sani Abacha. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
- Oyewole, A. (1987) Historical Dictionary of Nigeria, Scarecrow Press. p. 385. ISBN 0-8108-1787-X.
- http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9389478 "Abacha, Sani."
- http://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/07/world/nigerian-military-ruler-assumes-absolute-power.html
- "Abacha, Sani." Encyclopædia Britannica. 3 February 2007
- Shapiro, Bruce. "Return of the Ugly American" http://www.salon.com. November 9, 1999.
- Sharlet, Jeff. "Junkets for Jesus" Mother Jones, November/December 2010
- "A Different Perspective On 'The Family' And Uganda" NPR.org. December 22, 2009
- Elizabeth Olson (January 26, 2000). "Swiss Freeze A Dictator's Giant Cache". accessdate=2011-06-24.
{{cite web}}: line feed character in|work=at position 17 (help) - Pieth, Mark (2008). Recovering stolen assets. Peter Lang. pp. 43–44. ISBN 3-03911-583-9.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Reuters. "US freezes $458m hidden by Nigerian ex-leader". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
{{cite web}}:|last=has generic name (help) - http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/10/world/new-nigeria-chief-pledges-a-return-to-civilian-rule.html
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/109265.stm
- "General Sani Abacha Profile". Africa Confidential. Retrieved 19 June 2012.
- Weiner, Tim (11 July 1998). "U.S. Aides Say Nigeria Leader Might Have Been Poisoned". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 April 2010.
- Malhotra, Jyoti. "Did Indian girls see Nigerian dictator die?". The Indian Express. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
- Osahon, Naiwu (28 October 2010). "GENERAL SANI ABACHA (Adapted from Naiwu Osahon's book, The Viper's Den)". The Nigerian Voice. Retrieved 2 December 2010.
- "Newsmaker Profiles: Sani Abacha Nigerian President," CNN
- Norris, Floyd (21 April 2002). "Ideas & Trends; A Nigerian Miracle". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 April 2010.
- Easterly, William. (2002) The Elusive Quest for Growth, MIT Press. p. 245. ISBN 0-262-55042-3.
- The Worldwatch Institute. (2003) Vital Signs 2003, The Worldwatch Institute. p. 115. ISBN 0-393-32440-0.
- "Nigeria recovers Abacha's cash". BBC News. 1998-11-10. Retrieved 2006-10-21.
- Zuckoff, Mitchell. "The Perfect Mark." The New Yorker. , page 3.
- Who wants to be a millionaire? – An online collection of Nigerian scam mails
- http://www.ebolamonkeyman.com/Tuchme.htm is where the entire documented interchange between the scammers and the website can be found.
External links
- Template:Worldcat id
- Sani Abacha collected news and commentary at The New York Times
- Abacha dies at 54, BBC News, 8 June 1998
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded byIbrahim Babangida | Chief of the Army Staff 1985–1990 |
Succeeded bySalihu Ibrahim |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded byErnest Shonekan | Chairman of the Provisional Ruling Council of Nigeria 1993–1998 |
Succeeded byAbdulsalami Abubakar |
| Preceded byJerry Rawlings | Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States 1996–1998 |
Succeeded byAbdulsalami Abubakar |
| Heads of state of Nigeria | ||
|---|---|---|
| Queen (1960–1963) |  | |
| President of the First Republic (1963–1966) | ||
| Military regime (1966–1979) | ||
| President of the Second Republic (1979–1983) | ||
| Military regime (1983–1999) | ||
| President of the Fourth Republic (from 1999) | ||
| *Civilian; headed transition to abortive Third Republic | ||
| Chiefs of army staff (COAS) Nigeria | |
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| Ministers of defence of Nigeria | ||
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| Ministers of defence |
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| Ministers of state for defence (junior minister) | ||