Word: abacha
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...elect a civilian regime. Abiola appeared to win that election, even if he did it by dumping money on the electorate. But Nigeria's military bosses refused to accept the result and annulled the election. A year later, after Abiola proclaimed himself President anyway, a new strongman, General Sani Abacha, charged him with treason and clapped him in prison. After four years of mostly solitary confinement, Abiola's spirit appeared to be broken. He was so eager to be released that he seemed to renounce his claim to the presidency in a conversation only two weeks ago with U.N. Secretary...
...face of it, those are not promising materials for creating a Nigerian version of Nelson Mandela. But in a country where everything but misery is in short supply, people have learned to make do with whatever is at hand. Daily life in Nigeria deteriorated disastrously under Abacha's dictatorship as the economy and infrastructure crumbled. Unemployment and corruption inflamed ethnic animosity. The facts about Abiola became far less important to people than the image they could build around him of a democratic future they yearned to have...
...strengthen ties between African and African-American businessmen benefited from Abiola's largesse, as did the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation: each reportedly received a $250,000 donation. Few people asked where the money came from; even fewer returned it. The currying of favor continued under the brutal reign of Abacha. During that time, all manner of prominent African Americans from Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to delegations of clergymen, newspaper publishers and businessmen accepted government-sponsored tours of Nigeria, then sang the dictator's praises...
...Britain, the country has been under military rule. And despite Nigeria's oil wealth, most of the citizens remain in poverty. By the estimates of a 1991 government audit, $12 billion in oil revenues is simply unaccounted for--probably doled out to military leaders and elites. For his part, Abacha routinely imprisoned or executed his political opposition, including the writer and minority-rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was hanged in November 1995. Now Abacha has been replaced by another military leader, Major General Abdusalam Abubakar. It is still too early to know whether Abubakar is another dictator...
DIED. GENERAL SANI ABACHA, 54, Nigerian dictator who wrested power in a 1993 coup and maintained his grip on Africa's most populous and oil-rich nation by canceling free elections and silencing critics through imprisonment or execution; from an apparent heart attack; in Abuja, Nigeria. Perhaps Abacha's most notorious act as President was hanging the playwright and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight associates accused of treason...