Today In History: General Abacha Seized Power -- See full details inside

November 17, 1993 is one of the most notable dates in Nigerian history. That day, General Sanni Abacha seized the government and became Nigeria's seventh military dictator.

The incident happened at a time when Nigeria was in free fall.Gen
Ibrahim Babangida had just left government having ruled for eight years. The economy was bleeding.
Institutions were collapsing. Corruption and fraud had become the backbone of the society.

That year, after Babangida cancelled results of the June presidential election that Abiola won, there were riots in some parts of the country especially the south-west.

A lot of Nigerians had looked forward to 1993 as the year they'd be free from dictatorship, and they put their hope in Abiola and the 1993 election. They called it Hope '93.

So they were both furious and gutted when Babangida nullified the election and held on to power.
As the country boiled and support for Babangida faded, he set up an interim government in August and appointed Ernest Shonekan to head it, with Abacha as the vice. Then he left Aso Rock.
Some people believe he stepped aside as part of a calculation to tacitly work his way back into Aso Rock.
Anyway, people rejected the interim government, rioting continued and a federal court declared the government illegal.
The situation grew more chaotic. In the middle of this, Abiola and his supporters continued to heap pressure on the government in order to force a change in his favour.

Three months later, it happened.
That day, Abacha and his soldiers marched into Aso Rock and coerced Shonekan to resign. Then he took over the government.
Timothy says, "Many of us were very happy when Abacha took over.
We just wanted Shonekan to go away.
His government didn't get any respect.
We didn't vote for him. Someone just picked him and installed him there.
Nobody wanted him. In fact I think if the interim government had lasted some more time, there would been catastrophe, because Shonekan didn't have the mandate of the people and he couldn't control the army since he wasn't the constitutional head of state.
So when Abacha kicked him out, I was relieved and hopeful again that we would soon have our man, MKO, in the place."

But Abacha obviously wasn't interested in that direction. Soon after he became head of state, he began a bloody tyranny that Nigerians who lived under his rule would never forget.
Mustapha says, "If there's anything that Abacha would be remembered for, it is that his regime was a regime when there's no rule of law

Then on June 8, 1998, he died.