Fourth Republic
(1999-present)
• Action Congress (AC)
• Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD)
• African Democratic Congress (ADC)
• Alliance for Democracy (AD)
• All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP)
• All People's Party (APP)
• All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA)
• Democratic Alternative (DA)
• Democratic People's Party (Nigeria) (DPP)
• National Democratic Party (NDP)
• New Democrats (ND)
• People's Democratic Party (PDP)
• People's Redemption Party (PRP)
• People's Salvation Party (PSP)
• United Nigeria People's Party (UNPP)
• Fresh Democratic Party (FDP)
• Communist Party of Nigeria (CPN)
• Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA)
• People Progressive Party (PPP)
• Masses Movement of Nigeria (MMN)
• National Conscience Party (NCP)
• Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM)
• African Renaissance Party [ARP]
Electoral Commission – Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
Abortive Third Republic
(1991-1993)
• National Republican Convention (NRC)
• Social Democratic Party (SDP)
Electoral Commission – National Electoral Commission (NEC)
(1996-1998)
• National Democratic Coalition (NADECO)
• Committee for National Consensus (CNC)
• Democratic Party of Nigeria (DPN)
• Grassroots Democratic Movement (GDM)
• National Centre Party of Nigeria (NCPN)
• United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP)
• Justice Party (JP)
Electoral Commission –National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON)
Second Republic
(1979-1983)
• Greater Nigerian People's Party (GNPP)
• National Party of Nigeria (NPN)
• Nigeria Advance Party (NAP)
• Nigerian People's Party (NPP)
• People's Redemption Party (PRP)
• Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN)
• Movement of the People Party (MPP)
Electoral Commission – Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO)
First Republic
(1960-1966)
• Action Group (AG)
• Borno Youth Movement (BYM)
• Democratic Party of Nigeria and Cameroon (DPNC)
• Dynamic Party (DP)
• Igala Union (IU)
• Igbira Tribal Union (ITU)
• Kano People's Party (KPP)
• Lagos State United Front (LSUF)
• Mabolaje Grand Alliance (MGA)
• Midwest Democratic Front (MDF)
• National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons/National Council of Nigerian
Citizens (NCNC)
• Niger Delta Congress (NDC)
• Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP)
• Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU)
• Northern People's Congress (NPC)
• Northern Progressive Front (NPF)
• Republican Party (RP)
• United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC)
• United National Independence Party (UNIP)
• Zamfara Commoners Party (ZCP)
Electoral Commission – Nigerian Federal Electoral Commission
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
COUP D'ETAT (2) - History in Africa
The following will deal essentially with the first set of coups (successful and failed) in Africa with more emphasis on Nigeria
1. 1952: Military coup in Egypt
2. 1958: Military coup in Sudan
3. 1963: Military coup in Togo
4. 1965: Military coup in the Central African Republic
5. 1966: Military coup in Ghana
6. 1966: Military coup in Nigeria leading to end of first republic, Aguiyi-
Ironsi comes to power
7. 1966 (July): Military coup in Nigeria. Yakubu Gowon comes to power.
8. 1967 : Military coup in Gabon
9. 1969: Colonel Qadhafi overthrows a monarchy in Libya
10. 1971: Military coup in Uganda led by Idi Amin.
11. 1975: Military coup in Nigeria overthrows Gowon. Murtala Ramat Mohammed
comes to power.
12. 1976: Failed coup attempt in Nigeria. Murtala Ramat Mohammed killed
but Obasanjo survives and becomes head of state.
13. 1980: Military coup in Liberia
14. 1982: Failed coup in Kenya by the Kenya Air Force
15. 1983: Military palace coup in Nigeria. Second republic overthrown.
16. 1985: Military coup in Nigeria. Babangida replaces Buhari.
17. 1990: Failed coup attempt in Nigeria led by Col. Orkar
1. 1952: Military coup in Egypt
2. 1958: Military coup in Sudan
3. 1963: Military coup in Togo
4. 1965: Military coup in the Central African Republic
5. 1966: Military coup in Ghana
6. 1966: Military coup in Nigeria leading to end of first republic, Aguiyi-
Ironsi comes to power
7. 1966 (July): Military coup in Nigeria. Yakubu Gowon comes to power.
8. 1967 : Military coup in Gabon
9. 1969: Colonel Qadhafi overthrows a monarchy in Libya
10. 1971: Military coup in Uganda led by Idi Amin.
11. 1975: Military coup in Nigeria overthrows Gowon. Murtala Ramat Mohammed
comes to power.
12. 1976: Failed coup attempt in Nigeria. Murtala Ramat Mohammed killed
but Obasanjo survives and becomes head of state.
13. 1980: Military coup in Liberia
14. 1982: Failed coup in Kenya by the Kenya Air Force
15. 1983: Military palace coup in Nigeria. Second republic overthrown.
16. 1985: Military coup in Nigeria. Babangida replaces Buhari.
17. 1990: Failed coup attempt in Nigeria led by Col. Orkar
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
COUP D'ETAT (1) - An Introduction, Brief Overview and Types
A coup d'état also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden unconstitutional deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either civil or military. A coup d'état succeeds when the usurpers establish their legitimacy if the attacked government fails to thwart them, by allowing their (strategic, tactical, political) consolidation and then receiving the deposed government's surrender; or the acquiescence of the populace and the non-participant military forces.Maxwell Imarhiagbe (2005) adds that Coup de Etat, in its lowest term is the sudden change of government through the force of arm, which can be occasioned by the military backed and sponsored by internal and external forces in the background, hence Coups have long been part of political tradition; thus tactically, a coup usually involves control of some active portion of the military while neutralizing the remainder of a country's armed services. This active group captures or expels leaders, seizes physical control of important government offices, means of communication, and the physical infrastructure, such as streets and power plants. The coup succeeds if its opponents fail to dislodge the plotters, allowing them to consolidate their position, obtain the surrender or acquiescence of the populace and surviving armed forces, and claim legitimacy, therefore, the mere mention of coup d’etat, the unconstitutional and violent overthrow of incumbent governments, sends down shivers and evokes traumatic memories from any country’s nationals.
Military Coup d’etat, as Harvey Kebschull noted, is a speedily executed extralegal takeover of government by a conspiratorial group, usually consisting of military officers who use force or the threat of force to remove the government and assume power for itself. Samuel Huntington provided three classifications of coups: Break-through Coups; Veto Coups; and Guardian coups. Mike Hough and Pieter Esterhuysen provided three classifications of military regimes when coups are successful: Indirect Rule Regimes; Dual Rule Regimes; and Direct Military Regimes.
There are several explanations for coups. For instance, Morris Janowitz offered the Corporatist interpretations; while Samuel Huntington proffered the Structuralist view (ineffectual or lack of viable democratic institutions). Samuel Finer on the other hand attempted to mesh both the corporatist and structuralist views. Over all coups happen because of a mix of political, economic, ethnic, cultural, military and personal factors. Therefore, except in very few cases, it is difficult to pinpoint why certain conspiratorial groups prefer this extralegal and extrajudicial method of gaining control of state apparatus.
In Coup d'État: A Practical Handbook, military historian Edward Luttwak says, "A coup consists of the infiltration of a small, but critical, segment of the state apparatus, which is then used to displace the government from its control of the remainder", thus, armed force (either military or paramilitary) is not a defining feature of a coup d'état. Although the coup d'état has featured in politics since antiquity, the phrase is of relatively recent coinage; the Oxford Dictionary identifies it as a French expression meaning a “stroke of State”. In 1646, James Howell used the phrase in the book Louis XIII; the first English usage dates from 1811, referring to Napoleon Bonaparte's deposing the Revolutionary Directory in 1799.
Successful coupists reap the positive reward of their "risky business" by assuming the mantle of leadership; while those who fail are charged with treason. The penalty for failed coups is generally very severe. It can lead to lose of career, government imposed or self-imposed exile, long-term imprisonment, or even death.
Coups may fail because of a combination of reasons:
(1) the intelligence services of the government may detect the coup in its infancy; (2) there may be a "rat" within the group;
(3) a friendly foreign intelligence service may detect the coup in its planning stage and inform the targeted government;
(4) the officers that were not co-opted may resist the coups and repel the "invading forces";
(5) one of the vital units may not reach its intended destination;
(6) loyal government troop may repel the coupists; and
(7) and in rare cases, the general public or the international community may protest the coup, condemn the coupist and refuse to recognize the "new government" thereby forcing the renegade soldiers to return to the barracks. For instance the coup in Sao Tome and Principe "failed" because of Nigeria and the international community’s objection to the overthrow of the incumbent government.
Definition and Usage of the Term
Since the unsuccessful coups d'état of Wolfgang Kapp in 1920 (the Kapp Putsch), the Swiss German word Putsch (pronounced [ˈpʊtʃ]; coined for the Züriputsch of 1839) also denotes the same politico-military actions: in Metropolitan France, putsch denoted the 1942 and 1961 anti-government attacks in Algiers, and the 1991 August Putsch in the USSR; the German equivalent is Staatsstreich (state's blow), yet a putsch is not always a coup d'état, for example, the Beer Hall Putsch was by politicians without military support. The well reported and popular Nigeria putsches of Feb. 13, 1976 led by Col. Bukar Sukar Dimka and the Bloody coup of April 22, 1990 led by Major Gideon Orkar are vivid examples in Africa
However, linguistically, coup d'état denotes a "stroke of state" (French: coup [stroke] d' [of] État [state]).Analogously, the looser, quotidian usage means “gaining advantage on a rival”, (intelligence coup, boardroom coup). Politically, a coup d'état is a usually violent political engineering, which affects who rules in the government, without radical changes in the form of the government, the political system. Tactically, a coup d'état involves control, by an active minority of military usurpers, who block the remaining (non-participant) military's possible defence of the attacked government, by either capturing or expelling the politico-military leaders, and seizing physical control of the country's key government offices, communications media, and infrastructure. It is to be noted that in the latest years there has been a broad use of the phrase in mass media, which may contradict the legal definition of coup d'état.
General History
Coups d'état are common in Africa; between 1952 and 2000, thirty-three countries experienced 85 such depositions. Western Africa had most of them, 42; most were against civil regimes; 27 were against military regimes; and only in five were the deposed incumbents killed. Moreover, as a change-of-government method, the incidence of the coup d'état has declined worldwide, because usually, the threat of one suffices to effect the change of government; the military do not usually assume power, but install a civil leader acceptable to them. The political advantage is the appearance of legitimacy, examples are the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, and the change of government effected in Mauritania, on 3 August 2005, while the president was in Saudi Arabia
Types of Coup d'état
A coup d'état is typed according to the military rank of the lead usurper. The Veto coup d'état and the Guardian coup d'état are effected by the army's commanding officers. The Breakthrough coup d'état is effected by junior officers (colonels or lower rank) or non-commissioned officers (sergeants). When junior officers or enlisted men so seize power, the coup d'état is a mutiny with grave implications for the organizational and professional integrity of the military. In a Bloodless coup d'état, the threat of violence suffices to depose the incumbent. In 1889, Brazil became a republic via bloodless coup; in 1999, Pervez Musharraf assumed power in Pakistan via a bloodless coup; and, in 2006, Sonthi Boonyaratglin assumed power in Thailand as the leader of the Council for Democratic Reform under Constitutional Monarchy. See nonviolent revolution.
The self-coup denotes an incumbent government—aided and abetted by the military—assuming extra-constitutional powers. A historical example is President, then Emperor, Louis Napoléon Bonaparte. Modern examples include Alberto Fujimori, in Peru, who, although elected, assumed control of legislature and the judiciary in 1992, becoming an authoritarian ruler, and King Gyanendra's assumption of “emergency powers” in Nepal.
The political scientist Samuel P. Huntington identifies three classes of coup d'état:
• Breakthrough coup d'état: a revolutionary army overthrows a traditional government and creates a new bureaucratic élite. Generally led by mid level or junior officers. Examples are China in 1911, Bulgaria in 1944, Egypt in 1952, Greece in 1967, Libya in 1969 and Liberia in 1980.
• Guardian coup d'état: the "musical chairs" coup d'état. The stated aim of such a coup is usually improving public order, efficiency, and ending corruption. There usually is no fundamental change to the power structure. Generally, the leaders portray their actions as a temporary and unfortunate necessity. An early example is the coup d'état by Consul Sulla, in 88 B.C., against supporters of Marius in Rome, after the latter attempted to strip him of a military command. A contemporary instance is the civilian Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's overthrow by Chief of Army Staff General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in 1977, who cited widespread civil disorder and impending civil war as his justification. In 1999, General Pervez Musharraf overthrew Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the same grounds. Nations with guardian coups can frequently shift back and forth between civilian and military governments. Example countries include Argentina (1930 to 1983), Pakistan, Turkey, and Thailand. A “bloodless coup” usually arises from the Guardian coup d'état.
• Veto coup d'état: occurs when the army vetoes the people's mass participation and social mobilisation in governing themselves. In such a case, the army confronts and suppresses large-scale, broad-based civil opposition, tending to repression and killing, the prime example in Marxist historiography is the coup d'état in Chile in 1973 against the elected Socialist President Salvador Allende Gossens by the Chilean military. The 20 July 1944 plot by parts of the German military to overthrow the elected National Socialist government of Adolf Hitler in Germany is an example of a failed veto coup d'état.
Post-military-coup governments
After the coup d'état, the military face the matter of what type of government to establish. In Latin America, it was common for the post-coup government to be led by a Junta, a committee of the chiefs of staff of the armed forces. A common form of African post-coup government is the setting up of Ruling Councils, a de facto highest legislative and executive laws making body which they name according to different shades of ideologies of the coupists or what they intend to achieve, like in Nigeria, Supreme Military Council; Armed Forces Ruling Council; and Provisional Ruling Council or Revolutionary Assembly, a quasi-legislative body elected by the army. In Pakistan, the military leader typically assumes the title of chief martial law administrator.
According to Huntington, most leaders of a coup d'état act under the concept of right orders: they believe that the best resolution of the country's problems is merely to issue correct orders. This view of government underestimates the difficulty of implementing government policy, and the degree of political resistance to certain correct orders. It presupposes that everyone who matters in the country shares a single, common interest, and that the only question is how to pursue that single, common interest.
Military Coup d’etat, as Harvey Kebschull noted, is a speedily executed extralegal takeover of government by a conspiratorial group, usually consisting of military officers who use force or the threat of force to remove the government and assume power for itself. Samuel Huntington provided three classifications of coups: Break-through Coups; Veto Coups; and Guardian coups. Mike Hough and Pieter Esterhuysen provided three classifications of military regimes when coups are successful: Indirect Rule Regimes; Dual Rule Regimes; and Direct Military Regimes.
There are several explanations for coups. For instance, Morris Janowitz offered the Corporatist interpretations; while Samuel Huntington proffered the Structuralist view (ineffectual or lack of viable democratic institutions). Samuel Finer on the other hand attempted to mesh both the corporatist and structuralist views. Over all coups happen because of a mix of political, economic, ethnic, cultural, military and personal factors. Therefore, except in very few cases, it is difficult to pinpoint why certain conspiratorial groups prefer this extralegal and extrajudicial method of gaining control of state apparatus.
In Coup d'État: A Practical Handbook, military historian Edward Luttwak says, "A coup consists of the infiltration of a small, but critical, segment of the state apparatus, which is then used to displace the government from its control of the remainder", thus, armed force (either military or paramilitary) is not a defining feature of a coup d'état. Although the coup d'état has featured in politics since antiquity, the phrase is of relatively recent coinage; the Oxford Dictionary identifies it as a French expression meaning a “stroke of State”. In 1646, James Howell used the phrase in the book Louis XIII; the first English usage dates from 1811, referring to Napoleon Bonaparte's deposing the Revolutionary Directory in 1799.
Successful coupists reap the positive reward of their "risky business" by assuming the mantle of leadership; while those who fail are charged with treason. The penalty for failed coups is generally very severe. It can lead to lose of career, government imposed or self-imposed exile, long-term imprisonment, or even death.
Coups may fail because of a combination of reasons:
(1) the intelligence services of the government may detect the coup in its infancy; (2) there may be a "rat" within the group;
(3) a friendly foreign intelligence service may detect the coup in its planning stage and inform the targeted government;
(4) the officers that were not co-opted may resist the coups and repel the "invading forces";
(5) one of the vital units may not reach its intended destination;
(6) loyal government troop may repel the coupists; and
(7) and in rare cases, the general public or the international community may protest the coup, condemn the coupist and refuse to recognize the "new government" thereby forcing the renegade soldiers to return to the barracks. For instance the coup in Sao Tome and Principe "failed" because of Nigeria and the international community’s objection to the overthrow of the incumbent government.
Definition and Usage of the Term
Since the unsuccessful coups d'état of Wolfgang Kapp in 1920 (the Kapp Putsch), the Swiss German word Putsch (pronounced [ˈpʊtʃ]; coined for the Züriputsch of 1839) also denotes the same politico-military actions: in Metropolitan France, putsch denoted the 1942 and 1961 anti-government attacks in Algiers, and the 1991 August Putsch in the USSR; the German equivalent is Staatsstreich (state's blow), yet a putsch is not always a coup d'état, for example, the Beer Hall Putsch was by politicians without military support. The well reported and popular Nigeria putsches of Feb. 13, 1976 led by Col. Bukar Sukar Dimka and the Bloody coup of April 22, 1990 led by Major Gideon Orkar are vivid examples in Africa
However, linguistically, coup d'état denotes a "stroke of state" (French: coup [stroke] d' [of] État [state]).Analogously, the looser, quotidian usage means “gaining advantage on a rival”, (intelligence coup, boardroom coup). Politically, a coup d'état is a usually violent political engineering, which affects who rules in the government, without radical changes in the form of the government, the political system. Tactically, a coup d'état involves control, by an active minority of military usurpers, who block the remaining (non-participant) military's possible defence of the attacked government, by either capturing or expelling the politico-military leaders, and seizing physical control of the country's key government offices, communications media, and infrastructure. It is to be noted that in the latest years there has been a broad use of the phrase in mass media, which may contradict the legal definition of coup d'état.
General History
Coups d'état are common in Africa; between 1952 and 2000, thirty-three countries experienced 85 such depositions. Western Africa had most of them, 42; most were against civil regimes; 27 were against military regimes; and only in five were the deposed incumbents killed. Moreover, as a change-of-government method, the incidence of the coup d'état has declined worldwide, because usually, the threat of one suffices to effect the change of government; the military do not usually assume power, but install a civil leader acceptable to them. The political advantage is the appearance of legitimacy, examples are the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, and the change of government effected in Mauritania, on 3 August 2005, while the president was in Saudi Arabia
Types of Coup d'état
A coup d'état is typed according to the military rank of the lead usurper. The Veto coup d'état and the Guardian coup d'état are effected by the army's commanding officers. The Breakthrough coup d'état is effected by junior officers (colonels or lower rank) or non-commissioned officers (sergeants). When junior officers or enlisted men so seize power, the coup d'état is a mutiny with grave implications for the organizational and professional integrity of the military. In a Bloodless coup d'état, the threat of violence suffices to depose the incumbent. In 1889, Brazil became a republic via bloodless coup; in 1999, Pervez Musharraf assumed power in Pakistan via a bloodless coup; and, in 2006, Sonthi Boonyaratglin assumed power in Thailand as the leader of the Council for Democratic Reform under Constitutional Monarchy. See nonviolent revolution.
The self-coup denotes an incumbent government—aided and abetted by the military—assuming extra-constitutional powers. A historical example is President, then Emperor, Louis Napoléon Bonaparte. Modern examples include Alberto Fujimori, in Peru, who, although elected, assumed control of legislature and the judiciary in 1992, becoming an authoritarian ruler, and King Gyanendra's assumption of “emergency powers” in Nepal.
The political scientist Samuel P. Huntington identifies three classes of coup d'état:
• Breakthrough coup d'état: a revolutionary army overthrows a traditional government and creates a new bureaucratic élite. Generally led by mid level or junior officers. Examples are China in 1911, Bulgaria in 1944, Egypt in 1952, Greece in 1967, Libya in 1969 and Liberia in 1980.
• Guardian coup d'état: the "musical chairs" coup d'état. The stated aim of such a coup is usually improving public order, efficiency, and ending corruption. There usually is no fundamental change to the power structure. Generally, the leaders portray their actions as a temporary and unfortunate necessity. An early example is the coup d'état by Consul Sulla, in 88 B.C., against supporters of Marius in Rome, after the latter attempted to strip him of a military command. A contemporary instance is the civilian Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's overthrow by Chief of Army Staff General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in 1977, who cited widespread civil disorder and impending civil war as his justification. In 1999, General Pervez Musharraf overthrew Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the same grounds. Nations with guardian coups can frequently shift back and forth between civilian and military governments. Example countries include Argentina (1930 to 1983), Pakistan, Turkey, and Thailand. A “bloodless coup” usually arises from the Guardian coup d'état.
• Veto coup d'état: occurs when the army vetoes the people's mass participation and social mobilisation in governing themselves. In such a case, the army confronts and suppresses large-scale, broad-based civil opposition, tending to repression and killing, the prime example in Marxist historiography is the coup d'état in Chile in 1973 against the elected Socialist President Salvador Allende Gossens by the Chilean military. The 20 July 1944 plot by parts of the German military to overthrow the elected National Socialist government of Adolf Hitler in Germany is an example of a failed veto coup d'état.
Post-military-coup governments
After the coup d'état, the military face the matter of what type of government to establish. In Latin America, it was common for the post-coup government to be led by a Junta, a committee of the chiefs of staff of the armed forces. A common form of African post-coup government is the setting up of Ruling Councils, a de facto highest legislative and executive laws making body which they name according to different shades of ideologies of the coupists or what they intend to achieve, like in Nigeria, Supreme Military Council; Armed Forces Ruling Council; and Provisional Ruling Council or Revolutionary Assembly, a quasi-legislative body elected by the army. In Pakistan, the military leader typically assumes the title of chief martial law administrator.
According to Huntington, most leaders of a coup d'état act under the concept of right orders: they believe that the best resolution of the country's problems is merely to issue correct orders. This view of government underestimates the difficulty of implementing government policy, and the degree of political resistance to certain correct orders. It presupposes that everyone who matters in the country shares a single, common interest, and that the only question is how to pursue that single, common interest.
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