History 101: The Life and Times Of 'General Sani Abacha'

It was the year 1998 i think i was still in Primary school then and my Dad was still here, i woke up in the morning and as usual went to the sitting room to say Hi to my Dad and the Television was on NTA ph. Before i even said 'Daddy Good Morning' he just told us that the President was dead. Although we barely knew who Abacha was it still felt so sad,he was after all the President so what's not to know about him?!

Sani Abacha,  (born September 20, 1943, Kano, Nigeria—died June 8, 1998, Abuja), Nigerian military leader, who served as head of state (1993–98).
Abacha received his formal military training at Nigerian and British military training colleges. He rose through the ranks in the Nigerian military and by 1983 had achieved the rank of brigadier when he assisted Ibrahim Babangida in overthrowing Shehu Shagari, who had been elected to his second presidential term in 1983. Muhammad Buhari became Nigeria’s leader, but just two years later Babangida overthrew Buhari and installed himself as leader with Abacha second in command. Elections were held in 1993 and were won by Moshood Abiola, a candidate supposedly supported by Babangida, who, however, annulled the elections and set up a civilian interim government, which Abacha quickly overthrew.
Although Abacha promised a return to democracy, his actions were anything but democratic. He banned political activity of any kind, fired a large portion of the military, controlled the press, and assembled a personal security force of some 3,000 men. While he supported the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and its military arm, ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), in sending troops to restore democracy in Liberia and Sierra Leone, he brutally suppressed dissent at home. Abiola and Olusegun Obasanjo, a former military leader of Nigeria (1976–79), were jailed for treason. Wole Soyinka, Nigeria’s Nobel laureate, was also charged with treason, although he had voluntarily left the country. Perhaps Abacha’s most brutal act was the imprisonment, trial, and subsequent execution for treason of writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Ogoni activists who were concerned with the environmental exploitation of their region by multinational petroleum companies.

Early in 1998, Abacha announced that elections would be held that August, with a view toward handing power to a civilian government on 1 October. It soon became apparent, though, that Abacha had no intention of permitting an honest election; by April he had strong-armed the country's five parties into endorsing him as the sole presidential candidate.
Abacha died in June 1998 while at the presidential villa in Abuja. He was buried on the same day, according to Muslim tradition, without an autopsy. This fueled speculation that he may have been executed extrajudicially by way of being poisoned by political rivals via prostitutes. The government identified the cause of death as a sudden heart attack. It is reported that he was in the company of two Indian prostitutes imported from Dubai. It is thought that the prostitutes laced his drink with a poisonous substance, making Abacha feel unwell around 4:30am. He retired to his bed and was dead by 6:15am.
After Abacha's death, Maj. Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, Nigeria's Chief of Defence Staff, was sworn in as the country's head of state. Abubakar had never before held public office and was quick to announce a transition to democracy, which led to the election of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Abacha was married to Maryam Abacha and had seven sons and three daughters. He left fifteen grandchildren: eight girls and seven boys.
Abacha’s sudden death in June 1998 moved along the process of returning the country to civilian rule. His military successor, Abdusalam Abubakar, oversaw the return to an elected civilian government in 1999. After Abacha’s death, it was rumoured that he and his family had enriched themselves by some $3 billion, most of it held in European banks. In 2002 a settlement, which returned most of the money to the government in exchange for dropping criminal prosecution, was reached between the Obasanjo government and the Abacha family.

7 Things History Wont Forget About Abacha

1. Abacha is said to be the most successful coup plotter of all time. He was involved in every successful coup in Nigeria’s history. He single-handedly planned and executed the coup that brought General Muhammadu Buhari to power in 1985 and the one that removed him in 1985.
2. The deceased former military head of state was described as an ‘epitome of military discipline’ in some quarters. This is as a result of the fact that even with his ‘power-drunk’ administration,  he did not accept a single political appointment throughout his military career.
3. Abacha is the first Nigerian soldier to get to the rank of a full General without skipping a single rank.
4.  Although Abacha’s administration was very controversial with lots of human rights abuses, his administration was the first to record unprecedented economic achievements. There was an increase in the country’s foreign exchange reserves and a reduction in Nigeria’s external debt. Even the military ruler’s close associates called him a ‘good manager’.
5. Abacha is known as a man of “few words and deadly actions.” He did not say too much but acted instead. He shut down the media in the country, civil rights groups and pro-democracy campaigns during his brutal regime.
6. Abacha had quite lot of  scandals. He hanged the Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, jailed Moshood Abiola and Olusegun Obasanjo, while Wole Soyinka was charged with treason in absentia.
7. Abacha and his family looted a total of £5 billion from the country’s coffers. No wonder he was tagged the fourth most corrupt leader in history in 2004.