From Independence to the Fourth Republic: A History of Nigerian Elections (1959-1999)

The story of Nigerian elections is the story of Nigeria itself. It is a story of ambition and betrayal, of hope and disappointment, of a people who have repeatedly won the right to choose their leaders only to see that right taken away — and then fought to win it back.

This is the first of two articles tracing the history of Nigerian elections, from the pre-independence elections of 1959 to the return of civilian rule in 1999.

Before the Nation: Elections in Colonial Nigeria

The first elections on Nigerian soil were not national elections at all. They were local elections, held in Lagos and Calabar in the 1920s, under a franchise so narrow that only a few hundred wealthy, property-owning men could vote. These were elections for legislative councils with advisory powers, not governing assemblies.

The first significant expansion of the franchise came with the Richards Constitution of 1946, which created regional houses of assembly. But it was the Macpherson Constitution of 1951 that held the first elections with anything resembling broad participation — though still limited by property, gender, and education qualifications.

These early elections were organized around the three dominant regions — North, West, and East — and the three political parties that emerged to represent them: the Northern People's Congress (NPC) in the North, the Action Group (AG) in the West, and the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) in the East. The regional structure of these parties would shape — and in many ways distort — Nigerian politics for decades to come.

1959: The Pre-Independence Election

The election that mattered most in the colonial era was the federal election of December 1959 — the election that would determine the government that would lead Nigeria to independence on October 1, 1960.

The election was contested by three main parties: - The Northern People's Congress (NPC), led by Sir Ahmadu Bello (the Sardauna of Sokoto), representing the predominantly Muslim North. - The National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), led by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, representing the East and with national aspirations. - The Action Group (AG), led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, representing the West and advocating democratic socialism.

The result was a political reality that would haunt Nigeria for decades: no party won a majority. The NPC won 134 of the 312 seats, all but a handful from the North. The NCNC won 89 seats, mostly from the East. The AG won 73 seats, mostly from the West. To form a government, the NPC entered a coalition with the NCNC — a marriage of convenience between the conservative North and the more progressive East — leaving the AG in opposition.

Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa of the NPC became the first (and, as it would turn out, only) Prime Minister of the First Republic. Azikiwe became Governor-General, and later President when Nigeria became a republic in 1963.

The 1959 election was, by the standards of the time, relatively well-conducted. But it established a pattern that would define Nigerian elections for decades: regional parties, ethnic mobilization, and coalitions built on calculation rather than ideology.

The First Republic (1960-1966): Promise and Collapse

The First Republic began with hope. Nigeria was independent, democratic, and the most populous country in Africa. But the foundations were fragile.

The regional structure of the parties meant that national politics was a negotiation between regional elites rather than a contest of national visions. The 1964 federal election — the first since independence — was marred by widespread violence, boycotts in the East, and credible allegations of rigging. The coalition that emerged was unstable.

The crisis came in the Western Region in 1965. The Western Regional election of October 1965 was so brazenly rigged — with the active involvement of the federal government — that it triggered widespread violence known as "Operation Wetie" (a Yoruba phrase meaning "wet him" — a reference to the burning of opponents' homes and vehicles). The Western Region descended into chaos.

On January 15, 1966, a group of young military officers — most of them Igbo — staged a coup that killed the Prime Minister, the Premier of the North, the Premier of the West, and several senior military officers. It was the first military coup in Nigeria, and it ended the First Republic.

What followed was a counter-coup in July 1966, led by Northern officers; the massacre of Igbos in the North; the secession of the Eastern Region as the Republic of Biafra in 1967; and a civil war that lasted until 1970 and killed an estimated one to three million people, mostly from starvation.

The First Republic lasted six years. Its collapse was not inevitable, but it was the consequence of structural flaws — regionalism, ethnic politics, weak institutions, and a political class that prioritized power over democracy — that would recur.

The First Military Interregnum (1966-1979): The Generals in Power

For thirteen years, Nigeria was ruled by military governments. General Yakubu Gowon led the country through the civil war and the immediate post-war reconstruction. He was overthrown in 1975 by General Murtala Mohammed, who was assassinated in an attempted coup in 1976 and succeeded by his chief of staff, General Olusegun Obasanjo.

The military governments of this period were not democratic, but they were not uniformly hostile to the idea of democracy. Gowon promised to return to civilian rule but repeatedly postponed the date. It was Murtala Mohammed, and then Obasanjo, who committed to a concrete program of return — drafting a new constitution, creating new states, and preparing for elections.

A new constitution was written in 1979, modeled on the American presidential system — a deliberate departure from the parliamentary system of the First Republic, which was blamed for the instability of coalition governments. The country was divided into 19 states (up from 12), and five political parties were registered to contest the elections.

1979: The Election of the Second Republic

The 1979 election was the most ambitious democratic exercise Nigeria had attempted. Five parties contested: - The National Party of Nigeria (NPN), the successor in spirit to the NPC, dominant in the North. - The Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), the successor to the AG, dominant in the West and led by Awolowo. - The Nigerian People's Party (NPP), the successor to the NCNC, dominant in the East and led by Azikiwe. - The Great Nigeria People's Party (GNPP), led by Waziri Ibrahim, with strength in the North-East. - The People's Redemption Party (PRP), led by Aminu Kano, with strength among the Northern poor and working class.

The presidential election was won by Alhaji Shehu Shagari of the NPN, but the result was controversial. The constitution required the winner to have not only the most votes but also at least 25% of the vote in at least two-thirds of the states. Shagari had 25% in 12 of the 19 states — and the question was whether "two-thirds of 19" meant 12⅔ states, and whether Shagari's 19.94% in Kano (the 13th state) could be rounded up to 25%. The Supreme Court, in the celebrated case of Awolowo v. Shagari, ruled in Shagari's favor.

The decision was legally defensible but politically damaging. It established a pattern — repeated in subsequent elections — in which the courts were asked to resolve electoral disputes that should have been settled at the ballot box.

The Second Republic (1979-1983): A Brief Democracy

The Second Republic was brief and troubled. Shagari's government was widely perceived as corrupt. The oil boom of the 1970s had ended, and the economy was in crisis. The 1983 elections — held just four years after the return to democracy — were, by most accounts, the most rigged in Nigeria's history to that point. The NPN won a landslide that was widely seen as fraudulent, and the opposition parties cried foul.

On December 31, 1983, the military returned. Major-General Muhammadu Buhari led a coup that overthrew Shagari, citing the corruption and rigging of the Second Republic as justification. The Second Republic had lasted four years.

The Second Military Interregnum (1983-1999): The Long Dark

The period from 1983 to 1999 was the longest period of military rule in Nigeria's history, and it included some of the darkest chapters.

Buhari (1983-1985) ruled with an iron fist, using decrees to detain opponents, curb the press, and prosecute corrupt officials through tribunals. He was overthrown in 1985 by General Ibrahim Babangida.

Babangida (1985-1993) was a more sophisticated ruler who promised a return to democracy but repeatedly manipulated the process. He created a transition program that was supposed to culminate in elections, but he banned and unbanned political parties, and engineered the creation of two government-created parties — the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the National Republican Convention (NRC).

The Babangida transition culminated in the presidential election of June 12, 1993 — the most controversial election in Nigerian history.

June 12, 1993: The Election That Was Annulled

The June 12, 1993 election was held between Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola of the SDP and Alhaji Bashir Tofa of the NRC. Abiola, a wealthy Yoruba businessman from the South, ran against Tofa, a Northern politician. The election was notable for several reasons:

• It was the first election in which a Southern candidate defeated a Northern candidate in a national contest.
• It was conducted under a system designed by Babangida's government, with two government-created parties.
• It was, by virtually all independent accounts, the freest and fairest election in Nigeria's history to that point. Voter turnout was high, the process was orderly, and the result was widely accepted.

Abiola was winning decisively when, on June 23, 1993, Babangida annulled the election. The annulment — never adequately explained — triggered a political crisis. Protests erupted in the South-West. Babangida stepped down in August 1993, handing power to an interim government led by Chief Ernest Shonekan, which was itself overthrown in November 1993 by General Sani Abacha.

The annulment of June 12 is the defining wound of Nigerian democracy. It was the moment when the military, having promised democracy, refused to deliver it. Abiola declared himself president in 1994 and was arrested. He died in custody in 1998, on the eve of his scheduled release, in circumstances that have never been fully explained.

June 12 became a symbol — of stolen mandates, of democratic aspiration, of the cost of military rule. In 2018, the federal government declared June 12 as Democracy Day, replacing May 29, in a belated recognition of the election's significance.

Abacha (1993-1998): The Dictatorship at Its Darkest

General Sani Abacha's rule was the most repressive in Nigeria's history. Political opponents were detained, exiled, or killed — most famously, the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists were hanged in 1995 after a show trial. The press was muzzled. Civil society was suppressed.

Abacha promised a transition to civilian rule, but it was a sham. He created five political parties, all of which adopted him as their presidential candidate — leading the opposition to joke that the five parties were "five fingers of a leprous hand." He was preparing to "contest" an election he could not lose when he died suddenly in June 1998.

1998-1999: The Return to Democracy

Abacha's death opened the door. His successor, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, committed to a rapid transition to civilian rule. A new constitution was written (the 1999 Constitution, still in force today), new parties were registered, and an election was scheduled for 1999.

Three parties contested the 1999 election: - The People's Democratic Party (PDP), a broad coalition that drew support from across the country. - The All People's Party (APP), a conservative party with strength in the North. - The Alliance for Democracy (AD), a progressive party with strength in the South-West.

The presidential election was won by General Olusegun Obasanjo — the same man who had handed power to civilians in 1979 — running as a civilian candidate of the PDP. Obasanjo, a Yoruba man from the South-West, was seen as a unifying figure who could heal the wounds of June 12 and the Abacha years.

The election was not without controversy — turnout was low, and there were allegations of irregularities — but it was accepted as the beginning of a new era. On May 29, 1999, Obasanjo was sworn in as President of the Fourth Republic.

Lessons of the Pre-1999 History

The history of Nigerian elections before 1999 offers several lessons:

1. Democracy is fragile. The First and Second Republics each lasted only a few years before collapsing. The institutions of democracy — parties, courts, electoral commissions — were too weak to withstand the pressures of regionalism, corruption, and military ambition.

2. The military is not a solution. Each military intervention was justified as a response to civilian failure, but each one deepened the damage. The military that overthrew the First Republic in 1966 stayed in power for 13 years. The military that overthrew the Second Republic in 1983 stayed in power for 16 years. The cure was worse than the disease.

3. Elections can be stolen. The annulment of June 12, 1993, is the starkest example — an election that was free and fair, whose result was simply refused by the incumbent. But the pattern of rigging in 1964, 1983, and other elections shows that the theft of elections is a recurring feature, not an aberration.

4. The courts matter. The Awolowo v. Shagari decision of 1979, and the later decisions on subsequent elections, established that the judiciary would be asked to resolve electoral disputes. The independence and integrity of the courts is therefore central to the integrity of elections.

5. Civil society is essential. The pro-democracy movement that opposed Abacha, the NADECO group that kept the memory of June 12 alive, and the journalists and activists who documented military abuses — these were the forces that made the return to democracy possible. Democracy is not delivered from above. It is won from below.

The Story Continues

The return to democracy in 1999 was not the end of the story. It was the beginning of a new chapter — the Fourth Republic, which has now lasted longer than any previous democratic period in Nigeria's history. But the challenges of the past — weak institutions, ethnic politics, electoral manipulation, and the temptation of authoritarianism — have not disappeared. They have merely changed form.

The second article in this series will trace the history of Nigerian elections since 1999 — the PDP years, the emergence of the APC, the 2015 transition, and the elections of 2019 and 2023 — and the ongoing struggle to build a democracy that is not only held but also genuinely free.

For now, the lesson of the pre-1999 history is this: the right to vote was not given. It was fought for, over decades, by Nigerians who refused to accept that their country could not be a democracy. That fight is the inheritance of every citizen who votes today.