Return to Democracy and the Fourth Republic

On 29 May 1999 Olusegun Obasanjo was sworn in as president under a new constitution, ending military rule and beginning the Fourth Republic. After the death of General Sani Abacha in 1998, his successor, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, lifted the ban on political activity, released political prisoners and set up the Independent National Electoral Commission, which held local, state and national elections between December 1998 and February 1999 (Wikipedia). Obasanjo, a former military head of state who had been freed from prison, won the presidency for the People's Democratic Party.

The transition followed the death of General Sani Abacha on 8 June 1998. His successor, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, commuted the sentences of those convicted of plotting coups under Abacha, released almost all known political detainees and, in August 1998, set up the Independent National Electoral Commission. Three parties qualified to contest the elections: the People's Democratic Party, the All People's Party and the Alliance for Democracy (Wikipedia's history of Nigeria).

The 1999 constitution, based largely on the suspended 1979 constitution, kept a presidential system, with a National Assembly of a 109-member Senate and a 360-member House of Representatives. Civilian government has continued since (Wikipedia).

In his first months in office Obasanjo retired some 200 military officers, including all 93 who held political office, making a coup by senior officers less likely, and placed the Ministry of Defence under more direct government control. Press freedom grew. His government also faced serious communal violence, in Kaduna, Jos and across Benue, Taraba and Nasarawa states, and in November 1999 the army destroyed the town of Odi in Bayelsa State after the killing of twelve policemen (Wikipedia). Obasanjo was re-elected in 2003 (Wikipedia). The civilian order begun in 1999 has continued since (Wikipedia).