Ibrahim Babangida

Ibrahim Badamasi BabangidaListen^ⓘ GCFR GCB (born 17 August 1941) is a Nigerian general and politician who ruled as military president of Nigeria from 1985 when he orchestrated a coup d'état against Muhammadu Buhari, until his resignation in 1993 as a result of the crisis of the Third Republic.

He rose through the ranks of the Nigerian Army fighting in the Nigerian Civil War and at various times being involved in almost all the military coups in Nigeria, before advancing to the rank of a General and ultimately as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces; and as an unelected President and military dictator from 1985 to 1993, ruling for an uninterrupted period of eight years. His years in power, colloquially known as the Babangida Era, are considered one of the most controversial in Nigerian political and military history, being characterized by a burgeoning political culture of corruption in Nigeria, with Babangida and his regime estimated to have misappropriated at least 12 billion dollars (23.9 billion today).

The Babangida regime oversaw the establishment of a state security apparatus, survived two coup d'état attempts, and the subsequent execution of Mamman Vatsa (1985) and Gideon Orkar (1990) alongside the trial of hundreds of soldiers. The Babangida era also witnessed the assassination in Lagos of a prominent journalist named Dele Giwa (1986). The regime also faced a series of ethnic and religious outbreaks related to the fallout of Babangida's decision to increase cooperation with the Muslim world and rise in extremist tendencies. On the continent, his rule projected the country as a regional power with diplomatic successes including the Abuja Treaty and the military engagement of Nigerian troops in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Abroad, Babangida's military regime cemented traditional relations with the English-speaking world of the United States and the United Kingdom, and implemented economic liberalization and the privatization of state-owned enterprises alongside a national mass mobilization. The fall of Babangida and his regime was precipitated by the transition toward the Third Nigerian Republic and the subsequent militarization of politics in the 1993 presidential election which he annulled.