NGScorecard

Babangida committed repeatedly, from 1986 onward, to a transition-to-civil-rule programme with a fixed handover date, shifted several times and finally set for August 1993.

The transition ran for seven years and ended in its own destruction: after the 12 June 1993 presidential election was held, Babangida annulled it, then 'stepped aside' on 26 August 1993, installing an unelected Interim National Government rather than an elected president.

Launched the Structural Adjustment Programme in 1986 — devaluation, deregulation, privatisation, subsidy cuts and trade liberalisation — presented as the path back to growth without an IMF loan.

SAP produced a short export-led uptick in 1986–1988 but then falling real wages, collapsing social spending and repeated 'SAP riots'. It left living standards lower and inequality higher, and the naira massively devalued, and is widely regarded as a lost decade for the Nigerian economy.

Created and funded two political parties from above — the Social Democratic Party and the National Republican Convention — plus a 1989 constitution, as the vehicle for the Third Republic.

The engineered two-party system held elections at local, state and National Assembly level, but the presidential contest it was built for was annulled. The Third Republic never had an elected president and was dissolved months after the two-party structure produced its result.

The 12 June 1993 election was presented as the culmination of the transition and the freest in Nigeria's history to that point.

Unofficial results showed SDP's MKO Abiola and Babagana Kingibe defeating the NRC ticket by over 2.3 million votes. Babangida annulled the election before a result was declared, citing unspecified 'national security' grounds — an act that triggered years of crisis and is the single event his rule is most remembered for.