As Nigeria marks its 57th independence anniversary today, TheNewsGuru.com has compiled some of the major happenings in the country, between October 1, 1960 which marks the birth of Nigeria as an Independent nation till date.
1. July 1960: Sir Adesoji Aderemi became 1st African and Nigerian to be appointed a Governor in the Commonwealth. He became Governor before Nigeria got her independence.
2. October 1, 1960: Nigeria gained independence from Britain with Tafawa Balewa as Prime Minister and Nnamdi Azikiwe as President.
3. February 11 & 12, 1961: People of Northern and Southern Cameroon went to the polls to decide on joining the newly independent Nigeria or the French territory of Cameroon. The South voted to leave Nigeria and the North decided to join Nigeria.
4. October 1, 1963: Nigeria finally cuts its remaining ties with Britain, marking the birth of the First Republic.
7. December 30, 1964: The first national elections held in independent Nigeria.
8. January 15, 1966: A military coup deposed the government of the First Republic. Tafawa Balewa, Premier of Northern Nigeria Ahmadu Bello and Finance Minister Festus Okotie-Eboh, were assassinated. *9. January 16, 1966: The Federal Military Government was formed, with General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi acting as Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Federal Republic.
10. July 29, 1966: A counter-coup by military officers of northern extraction deposed the Federal Military Government. Aguiyi-Ironsi and Adekunle Fajuyi, Military Governor of the Western Region, were assassinated. Lt.Col. Yakubu Gowon became President.
11. 1967: Genocide against people of Eastern Nigerian origin claimed the lives of thousands, mostly Christians in the North. This triggered a migration of the Igbo back to the East.
12. May 27, 1967: Gowon announced further subdivision of Nigeria, into 12 states.
13. May 30, 1967: Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, declared his province an independent republic called Biafra, triggering the Civil War, which lasted for 2 years, 6 months, 1 week and 2 days.
14. January 8, 1970: Ojukwu fled into exile. His deputy, Philip Effiong, became acting President of Biafra.
15. January 15, 1970: The Biafra war ended, leaving nearly two million people dead. Effiong surrendered to Nigerian forces.
16. 1971: Nigeria joined the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
17. January 22, 1973: A plane crashed in Kano, Nigeria, killing 176 people.
18. May 22, 1973 22: The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was introduced.
19. July 29, 1975: General Yakubu Gowon was overthrown in a bloodless coup. General Murtala Mohammed, became the Head of State.
20. February 13, 1976: General Murtala Mohammed was assassinated on his way to work. He was succeeded by General Olusegun Obasanjo.
21. August 11, 1979: Shehu Shagari won election to the Executive Presidency of the American-style Second Republic.
22. October 1, 1979: Shagari was sworn in as President.
23. March 5, 1980: Mrs Folake Solanke became the first female Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
24. September 1983: In Nigeria’s second national elections, Shagari was re-elected president.
25. December 31, 1983: Major-General Muhammadu Buhari led another military coup and overthrew the government of Shagari.
26. August 27, 1985: General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB) took over power in a bloodless coup.
27. 1987: Babangida postponed the date of return to civilian rule from October 1990 to October 1992.
28. 1988: Government reduced fuel price subsidies as part of its austerity program. In response, transporters raised their prices by 50-100 per cent and the rest of the population, especially students, went on strike – fuel prices were lowered again.
29. 1988: Government increased the number of states in Nigeria to 21 (from 19). Later on, it was further increased to 30.
30. October 1989: Babangida’s government refused to legalise 13 independent political parties. Instead, government founded the Social Democratic Party (SDP) (Centre-left) and the National Republican Convention (NRC) (Centre- right) as the only legal political parties.
31. September 1991: Administrative reform produced nine new states and 140 additional local government areas. The date for transition to civilian rule was pushed back again, to January 2, 1993.
32. 1991: Government reversed itself and allowed ‘old breed’ politicians to take part in presidential politics.
33. 1992: Census figures showed that Nigeria had become Africa’s most populous country; with 88.5 million people (Egypt was second with 52 million). Nigeria’s GDP was second in Africa ($35 million to South Africa’s $90 million), but per capita income was only $395.
34. October-November 1992: Babangida cancelled the presidential primaries, banned leaders of both parties, and pushed the date of the presidential election to mid- 1993.
35. March 1993: New primaries yield Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola and Bashir Othman Tofa as presidential candidates for the SDP and NRC respectively.
36. June 12, 1993: Presidential elections were held and businessman, Chief Abiola of the SDP, took unexpected lead in the early returns.
37. June 23, 1993: Babangida gave reasons for annulling the results of the Presidential election. At least 100 people were killed in ensuing riots.
38. August 26, 1993: Babangida ‘stepped aside’ and named an interim government, headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan.
39. October 1993: The youthful group, Movement for the Advancement of Democracy (MAD), hijacked a Nigerian airliner to Niger in order to protest official corruption.
40. November 17, 1993: General Sani Abacha, Defence Minister in the Interim Government seized power.
41. June 11, 1994: Abiola proclaimed himself president, was arrested and charged with treason. Army suppressed riots and strikes that broke out his arrest.
42. July 1995: Former President Obasanjo was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a secret military tribunal for alleged participation in an attempt to overthrow the government.
43. November 10, 1995: Writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and eight members of his Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People were hanged for murder. Commonwealth suspended Nigeria. Arms and visa restrictions were imposed by the United States, European Union and South Africa.
44. May 11, 1996: Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria’s first president, died.
45. June 8, 1998: General Sani Abacha died unexpectedly of a heart attack as he was poised to stand as the sole candidate in the August presidential elections.
46. June 9, 1998: Abubakar was sworn in as Nigeria’s eighth military ruler, by the Provisional Ruling Council. He promised to relinquish power on May 29, 1999.
47. July 7, 1998: Moshood Abiola died in detention before he could be released in a general amnesty for political prisoners. Rioting in Lagos led to over 60 deaths.
48. August 31, 1998: The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) became the first major party to launch itself.
49. May 29, 1999: Former Military Head of State, Olusegun Obasanjo, was sworn in as Nigeria’s democratically elected civilian President.
50. November 20, 2002: More than 200 people died in four days of rioting stoked by Muslim fury over the planned Miss World beauty pageant in Kaduna in December. The event was relocated to Britain.
51. August 14, 2008: Nigeria hands over the disputed Bakassi Peninsula to neighbouring Cameroon under the terms of a 2002 International Court of Justice ruling.
52. May 5, 2010: President Umaru Yar’Adua died after a long illness. Vice- President Goodluck Jonathan, already acting in Yar’Adua’s stead, succeeded him.
53. December 24, 2010: Christmas Eve bomb attacks near central city of Jos killed at least 80 people. Attacks claimed by Islamist sect, Boko Haram, sparked clashes between Christians and Muslims. Some 200 were killed in reprisals.
54. March, 29, 2015: General elections held and for the first time in history an opposition candidate, Muhammadu Buhari of the APC defeated an incumbent president.
55. May 7: President Muhammadu Buhari embarks on his second medical vacation abroad and only returned after spending 104 days in the UK.
56. June 6, 2017: Arewa Youths issue quite notice to Igbo living in the North to leave the region by October 1, 2017.
57. September 14, 2017: The army storms the country home of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), in Afaraukwu, Abia State, claiming it is part of their ‘Operation Python Dance II’. The separatist leader has not been seen since then.