OIL AND COUPS IN NIGERIA

Oil and Coups

Given the bitterness of the civil war, the restoration of peace and the
reintegration of the Igbo into Nigerian life were remarkably rapid.
Aiding the resumption of normalcy was a booming oil trade (by the
mid-1970s, Nigeria was the fifth largest producer of petroleum in the world).
However, along with rapid growth came shortages of key commodities,
crippling congestion in the ports, and demands for redistribution of
wealth. Although a national development plan resulted in some
redistribution, the bulk of Nigeria’s income remained in the hands of an urban few.

In 1974 Gowon announced that the return to civilian rule would be
postponed indefinitely. His timing was poor: High prices, chronic shortages,
growing corruption, and the failure of the government to address
several regional issues had already created a restless mood. On July 29,
1975, Brigadier Murtala Ramat Muhammed overthrew Gowon in a bloodless
coup. Muhammed moved quickly to address issues that Gowon had avoided. He
replaced corrupt state governors. He purged incompetent and corrupt
members of the public services. He instigated a plan to move the national
capital from industrial, coastal Lagos to neglected, interior Abuja.
Civilian rule, he declared, would be restored by 1979, and he began a
five-stage process of transition.

The reforms made Muhammed extremely popular with many Nigerians. On
February 13, 1976, he was assassinated in a coup attempt, but his
administration remained in power. His successor, Lieutenant General Olusegun
Obasanjo, continued Muhammed’s reforms, including the move toward
civilian rule. Obasanjo also created seven new states to help redistribute
wealth and began a massive reform of local government. In 1977 he convened
a constitutional assembly, which recommended replacing the
British-style parliamentary system with an American-style presidential system of
separate executive and legislative branches. To ensure that candidates
would appeal to ethnic groups beyond their own, the president and vice
president were required to win at least 25 percent of the vote in at
least two-thirds of the 19 states. The new constitution took effect in
1979. The restructured administration was called Nigeria’s Second
Republic.