Word: babangida
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Nigeria's President and military commander General Ibrahim Babangida turned over power to a mostly civilian interim government, ending his eight-year rule. The new head of government is Ernest Shonekan, 57, a businessman and lawyer who chaired the transitional council created in January to return the country to democracy. Most members of the interim government have close ties to Babangida, and many believe he will continue to rule behind the scenes...
...another in a series of moves to delay relinquishing power, General Ibrahim Babangida, Nigeria's longtime dictator, has said he will form an "interim" government of soldiers and civilians instead of restoring a civilian government on Aug. 27 as he promised. In a strong, silent demand that the general recognize the results of the June election, which was apparently won by his former friend Moshood Abiola, virtually the entire capital of Lagos shut down for a three-day strike. Abiola was in Washington hoping to persuade the U.S. to pressure Babangida to step down...
Over and over, since Nigeria gained independence 33 years ago, the government has gyrated between short-lived civilian control and military regimes. From the day President Ibrahim Babangida, an army major general, seized power in a coup eight years ago, he promised an orderly return to democratic rule. He created two political parties and wrote their platforms: the Social Democratic Party tilted a bit to the left, the National Republican Convention leaned the same degree to the right. He handpicked their presidential candidates. But when Moshood Abiola, the millionaire industrialist candidate of the Social Democrats, won the election and insisted...
...Those with means sent their families out of the country. The poor, the overwhelming majority, sent their children to home villages in the countryside. State security officers and riot police & rounded up human-rights leaders and interrogated them. False reports in a government-controlled newspaper claimed that critics of Babangida were secretly being financed by the U.S. embassy. "They want to use the threat of a new civil war to bring out their tanks again," said a human-rights activist...
Hundreds of people took to the streets of Lagos, Nigeria's capital, to protest the despotism of General Ibrahim Babangida, who three weeks ago annulled last month's election while the votes were still being counted. The general has repeatedly backed away from earlier promises to return his country to civilian rule. He says he will step down at the end of August, but refuses to hand over the government to businessman Moshood Abiola, the clear but unofficial winner of the June election...