The Second Republic Restores Civilian Rule Under a Presidential Constitution
In 1979 the military hands power to elected president Shehu Shagari, under a new constitution modeled on the United States
Quick facts
- Civilian rule restored
- October 1, 1979
- President
- Shehu Shagari (National Party of Nigeria)
- Constitutional change
- Presidential system modeled on the United States
- Ended by
- Military coup, December 31, 1983 (Buhari)
What happened
After thirteen years of military rule, the government of General Olusegun Obasanjo oversaw a return to elected civilian government. Under a new 1979 constitution that replaced the first republic's British-style parliamentary system with an American-style executive presidency, Alhaji Shehu Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria won the presidential election, and the military handed power to him on October 1, 1979, beginning the Second Republic. The constitution required parties and cabinets to reflect the federal character of the country, an attempt to prevent any single region from dominating. The republic proved short-lived: Shagari was re-elected in 1983 in a vote widely condemned as rigged, and on December 31, 1983, the military under Major General Muhammadu Buhari seized power again, ending the Second Republic after just over four years.
Why it matters
The Second Republic was Nigeria's second attempt at civilian democracy and its first with an executive presidency, the model the country still uses today. Its collapse in 1983 after a rigged election reinforced a pattern in which fraud and corruption repeatedly gave the military a pretext to return, a cycle that would not be broken until 1999.
How we know
The Second Republic's structure, Shagari's election, and the 1983 coup are documented in Nigerian government records and analyzed in Council on Foreign Relations institutional histories of Nigerian politics.
Sources
- Council on Foreign Relations. Shehu Shagari, President of Nigeria's Second Republic, Passes Away · General sourcecfr.org · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation (Nigeria). 1979 October 1: Alhaji Shehu Shagari was sworn in as president · Primary source (author-declared)fmino.gov.ng · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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