Word: babangida
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Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, a general in the Nigerian army, is a man who always seems to be at the center of the action. In 1975 he and his fellow officers ousted General Yakubu Gowon, who had taken power soon after the outbreak of the bloody four-year Biafran war. The following year, an unarmed Babangida confronted rebellious army officers in Lagos during an attempted coup and persuaded them to surrender. It was he too who masterminded the army coup that, on the last day of 1983, toppled Shehu Shagari, the civilian President whose winking acceptance of endemic corruption had helped...
...announcement that Army Chief of Staff Babangida, 44, had deposed the government leader Major General Mohammed Buhari without bloodshed caused only moderate surprise among Nigeria's 90 million citizens. Deposed with Buhari was his top aide, Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon, who occupied the unofficial post of Vice President. Nigerians had watched despairingly as the Buhari regime's promises to revive the economy and wipe out rampant corruption withered during 20 months of heavy-handed, largely ineffective rule. Last May, Buhari ordered the brutal expulsion of 700,000 illegal immigrants from neighboring African states, jailed hundreds of political opponents and muzzled...