Vol 40 No 12 | NIGERIA Exeunt sojas 11th June 1999 It was a spectacular coda to 16 years of military rule. On 29 May, more than 30 heads of state, ex-heads of state and international dignitaries -...
Vol 40 No 12 | NIGERIA New team, old players 11th June 1999 President Obasanjo mixes old military friends and human rights activists in his new cabinet 'Is this 1999 or 1979?' asked one senator on seeing President Olusegun Obasanjo's list of 42 ministerial nominees. Another opined more diplomatically that the list favoured 'experience over...
Vol 40 No 11 | NIGERIASOUTH AFRICA Fernandez letter 28th May 1999 Who was behind the crude attempt to smear President Nelson Mandela by linking him to an oil deal with Nigerian middle-man Chief Antonio Deinde Fernandez? Copies of...
Vol 40 No 10 | NIGERIA Golden parachutes 14th May 1999 Military 'pensions' and mismanagement threaten the incoming civilian government It's now clear that President Olusegun Obasanjo's incoming civilian government will face a major financial crisis when it takes office on 29 May. The massive drawdown in foreign...
Vol 40 No 5 | NIGERIA Soldier go, soldier come 5th May 1999 President-elect Obasanjo's greatest challenge will be his plans to reform the military and end the putschist mentality The Nigerian conundrum - ‘it takes a soldier to end army rule’ - is to be tested again. General Olusegun Obasanjo, the choice of most army officers...
Vol 40 No 5 | NIGERIA Virtual voters 5th May 1999 Election monitors coined a phrase for General Olusegun Obasanjo’s presidential victory on 27 February: the result was not ‘free and fair’ but ‘generally reflects the will of the...
Vol 40 No 8 | NIGERIA The $2.7 billion hole in the bank 16th April 1999 The military regime is leaving its civilian successor a mountain of dubious debts and undermining prospects for economic recovery General Olusegun Obasanjo's newly elected government starts work on 29 May. But the bright hope is dimmed by an unexpectedly grim financial legacy from the outgoing military...
Vol 40 No 7 | NIGERIA Muddy waters 2nd April 1999 Friends of President-elect General Olusegun Obasanjo say he is incensed by the decision of the outgoing military regime under Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar to award 11 oil exploration blocks...
Vol 40 No 4 | NIGERIA The General's election 19th February 1999 Twenty years after he left power, Gen. Obasanjo looks set to return, this time with an electoral mandate General Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s first military officer to hand power to an elected government, looks set - 20 years later - to become the first officer to win...
Vol 40 No 4 | NIGERIA It's the economy 19th February 1999 Amid the campaign razzamatazz, politicians are ignoring the looming economic disaster In the party conventions and in the lobbies of Abuja’s smart hotels, the talk is of who should be the new civilian president - and of how to...