The coup that brought the Murtala Muhammed/Olusegun Obasanjo regime to power in 1975 occurred against the background of general disenchantment with the corrupt and inept regime of General Yakubu Gowon. It was clear that Gowon could not check the excesses of his subordinates. The only solace that the public had was the promise Gowon made in 1970 to hand over power to civilians in 1976. But when, in 1974, he reneged on the promise, declaring that 1976 was no longer realistic, large sections of the public that had long suspected the sincerity of the military’s promise to hand over power to civilians felt vindicated. Within the military, there were divisions over this issue of withdrawing from politics. It was against this background that a section of the military that favored withdrawal from politics and led by General Murtala Muhammed overthrew the Gowon’s regime in a bloodless coup d’etat in July 1975.
Given the factors that influenced the coup, the primary concern of the new administration, which described itself as a corrective regime, was the improvement of the image of the military, ridding the society of corruption and perhaps more importantly setting in motion a democratization process. The first step the regime took was to carry out a massive retrenchment of corrupt and inefficient workers from various government departments, the judiciary, parastatals at both the federal and state levels, as well as the military. However, the primary program of the regime was the setting in motion of a transition to civil rule process. Hence on October 1,
1975, during the independence day broadcast, General Muhammed announced a five-stage program of transition to civil rule which was to last from 1975 to 1979. The program combined structural reforms with constitution making. The structural reforms involved the creation of new states and the reorganization of the local government system. The constitution making process included the setting up of a Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC), followed by a Constituent Assembly (CA) to deliberate on the draft constitution, lifting of the ban on politics, elections into state and federal legislatures, and the handing over of power to civilians on October 1, 1979. Muhammed stated that structural reforms had to be carried out along with the demilitarization process, in order to create a viable political system that will be stable and responsive to the needs and realities of the country. However, this transition to civil rule program had barely started when Muhammed was assassinated in an unsuccessful coup on February 13,
1976. Muhammed was succeeded by General Olusegun Obasanjo, his second in command, who committed himself to fully implementing the transition program.
Based on the report of the Irikefe Panel, on the creation of new states, seven more states were created in February 1976, bringing the total number of states in Nigeria to nineteen. It was believed that the creation of new states would bring government closer to the people, promote even development and allay the fears of minorities, thereby helping to enhance political stability in the country. The 1976 local government reforms introduced a uniform system of local governments and made local governments the third tier of government in the federation. Local governments were to promote development at the grassroots level, were entitled to revenue allocation and had areas of exclusive legislative jurisdiction. One effect of these structural reforms was to increase the financial dependence of the states and local governments on the federal government with the result that these two lower tiers of government became mere administrative agents and distribution outlets for federal resources.
The first step in the constitution-making process was the inauguration of the CDC in October 1975. The all-male fifty-member CDC, made up largely of professionals, academicians, and bureaucrats, was given the mandate of producing a draft constitution which would provide a sound basis for the continuing existence of a united Nigeria. The submission of a two-volume report by the CDC in September 1976 and the wide circulation of these reports, led to a nationwide debate on the draft constitution. Following the submission of the report of the CDC, a Constituent Assembly (CA) with majority of its members elected through the electoral college system and a few members nominated to represent special interests, was inaugurated. The main task of the CA was to deliberate on the draft constitution and produce a final copy of the constitution to the federal military government for ratification. Since most of the members of the CA were politicians, its deliberation was more partisan and controversy-ridden than the highly technical CDC. The issues that generated the greatest controversies, in particular, the establishment of a separate federal Shari’a (Islamic law) court of appeal and the formula for the creation of more states, reflected the religious and sectional differences among the members of the CA. The CA equally provided an avenue for the formation of political associations that metamorphosed into political parties when the ban on politics was lifted. However, the CA completed its task in August 1978 and submitted a copy of the constitution to the government.
The Supreme Military Council (SMC) deliberated on the constitution and made seventeen amendments before promulgating it into law in September 1978. Right from the beginning of the constitution making process, the military set down the framework of the type of constitution it desired. The final deliberation and amendments by the SMC ensured that the military had the final say regarding the nature of the constitution that was made law. This, together with the fact that the CDC and the CA were dominated by members of the elite, ensured that the constitution did little in the way of providing rights and privileges for the non-elite majority. However, the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) which had been set up in 1976 to oversee the electoral process, registered five out of the over fifty political associations that applied for registration as political parties. FEDECO conducted elections at the state and federal levels between July and August 1979. After a bitterly contested and disputed presidential election, Shehu Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria was sworn in as the country’s executive president on October 1, 1979, thereby marking the final stage in the transition to a program of civil rule. It was clear, however, that the Second Republic began on an uncertain foundation and was destined to face a number of serious challenges.
J. I. Dibua
See also: Obasanjo, Olusegun.
Further Reading
Bolaji, L. Shagari: President by Mathematics. Ibadan: Automatic Printing Press, 1980.
Falola, T. The History of Nigeria. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999.
Forrest, T. Politics and Economic Development in Nigeria.
Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1993.
Graf, W. D. The Nigerian State: Political Economy, State Class and Political System in the Post-Colonial Era. London: James Currey and Heinmann, 1988.
Odetola, T. O. Military Politics in Nigeria: Economic Development and Political Stability. New Brunswick, N. J.: Transaction Books, 1980.
Osaghae, E. E. Crippled Giant: Nigeria Since Independence.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998.
Oyediran, O. (ed.). Nigerian Government and Politics Under Military Rule, 1966-1979. London: Macmillan, 1979.
World History
