The Second Republic (1979–1983)

The Second Republic was Nigeria's second period of civilian government, from 1 October 1979 to the military coup of 31 December 1983. According to the Library of Congress country study, it was born amid great expectations, with high oil prices and rising revenue, under a new presidential constitution modelled on that of the United States.

Five parties contested the 1979 elections, several of them continuing the parties of the First Republic. The National Party of Nigeria (NPN) inherited the mantle of the Northern People's Congress; the UPN, led by Obafemi Awolowo, succeeded the Action Group; the Nigerian People's Party (NPP), led by Nnamdi Azikiwe, succeeded the NCNC; the People's Redemption Party, led by Aminu Kano, succeeded the Northern Elements Progressive Union; and the Great Nigerian People's Party, led by Waziri Ibrahim of Borno, broke away from the NPP. Shehu Shagari of the NPN won the presidency in a close and controversial vote. Lacking a majority in either house of the National Assembly, the NPN governed at first in a shaky coalition with the NPP.

The country study describes how the republic was undermined. The oil boom ended in mid-1981, just as expectations were highest; state governments ran up large debts, and teachers went on strike because they had not been paid. Religious riots linked to the Maitatsine movement broke out in Kano in 1980 and in Kaduna and Maiduguri in 1982. In January and February 1983 the government expelled an estimated 2 million foreign workers, about half of them from Ghana. Large projects continued, including the Ajaokuta steel works and a steel plant at Aladja near Warri.

Shagari was re-elected in 1983 in an election widely regarded as fraudulent. On 31 December 1983 the military seized power again, led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari; the country study says the main reason was that there was virtually no confidence left in the civilian government, with the economy in chaos and corruption out of control.