Military dictatorship in Nigeria

The military dictatorship in Nigeria was a period when members of the Nigerian Armed Forces held power in Nigeria from 1966 to 1999 with an interregnum from 1979 to 1983. The military was able to rise to power often with the tacit support of the elite through coup d'états. Since the country became a republic in 1963, there has been a series of military coups.

Background
Military rule i n Nigeria began with the coup d'état of 1966 which was planned and executed by a group of revolutionary nationalist officers. The coup started as a small rebellion cell under Emmanuel Ifeajuna. Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu was the face of the coup attempt, which involved five other army majors: Timothy Onwuatuegwu, Chris Anuforo, Don Okafor, Adewale Ademoyega and Humphrey Chukwuka. It operated as a clandestine movement of junior officers during the post-independence period of 1960–1966. The plot received support from left-wing intellectuals, who rejected conservative elements in society, like the traditional establishment of Northern Nigeria and sought to overthrow the First Nigerian Republic.

Military regimes
Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi was made the Head of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria, serving for six months before being overthrown and assassinated in the 1966 Nigerian counter-coup.

Aguiyi-Ironsi was succeeded by General Yakubu Gowon, who established a Supreme Military Council. Gowon held power until July 1975, when he was overthrown in another coup.

Brigadier (later General) Murtala Mohammed succeeded Gowon. Months later, in February 1976, Mohammed was assassinated by Buka Suka Dimka and others in a violent coup attempt. The plotters failed to kill Olusẹgun Ọbasanjọ, who then succeeded Murtala Mohammed as the head of state. The Supreme Military Council was formally dissolved when Ọbasanjọ handed power to the elected Shehu Shagari, ending the military regime and establishing a Nigerian Second Republic.

The Second Republic was overthrown in the 1983 Nigerian coup d'état and was succeeded by Muhammadu Buhari, who established a new Supreme Military Council of Nigeria as Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Buhari ruled for two years, until the 1985 Nigerian coup d'état, when he was overthrown by General Ibrahim Babangida.

General Ibrahim Babangida was promulgated as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and established the Armed Forces Ruling Council. His rule was the longest serving peaceful administration typified as the military off dictatorship of the 20th century. Babangida promised a return of democracy when he seized power, but he ruled Nigeria for eight years, when he temporarily handed power to an interim head of state, Ernest Shonekan, in August 1993.

In 1993, General Sani Abacha overthrew the Interim National Government and appointed himself Chairman of the Provisional Ruling Council of Nigeria.

Transition to democracy
After Abacha's death in 1998, General Abdulsalami Abubakar took over and ruled until Olusẹgun Ọbasanjọ again became head of state (via the 1999 presidential election), ending the junta and establishing the Fourth Nigerian Republic.