Return to Civilian Rule

On 1 October 1979 the military government handed power to an elected civilian government under President Shehu Shagari, beginning the Second Republic. According to the Library of Congress country study, the first elections under the 1979 constitution were held on schedule in July and August 1979. Five parties took part; Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria won the presidency, defeating Nnamdi Azikiwe in a close and controversial vote.

The return to civilian rule was the result of a transition programme begun by Murtala Muhammad, who in 1975 committed the military government to hand power to an elected civilian government by October 1979, and completed by Olusegun Obasanjo after Murtala's assassination in 1976. According to the Library of Congress country study, a draft constitution was published in October 1976 and debated by a constituent assembly; proposals to declare Nigeria a "socialist" state were rejected, and parties seeking registration had to have national objectives and executive boards drawn from at least two-thirds of the states. The constitution adopted in 1979 was modelled on that of the United States, with a president, a Senate and a House of Representatives. The drafting committee discarded Murtala Muhammad's recommendation of a non-party system, and local elections were held before the national ones (country study).

The new constitution replaced the parliamentary system of the First Republic with a presidential one modelled on that of the United States. The Second Republic lasted until the military coup of 31 December 1983 (country study).

This was the first time a Nigerian military government handed power voluntarily to an elected civilian government. Five parties were registered for the 1979 elections, several of them successors of the parties of the First Republic (country study). The Second Republic that followed lasted until the coup of 31 December 1983.