January 24: Shugaba, majority leader of Borno State assembly,
deported by presidential order
March 23: Nigeria wins African Nations Soccer Cup in Lagos (skipper: Christian Chukwu)
March 25: Shugaba's deportation order quashed by the courts
March 30: Joseph Tarka dies in London
April: OAU Economic Summit hosted in Lagos; Lagos Plan of Action adopted
April: Shagari launches "Green Revolution" (agriculture) campaign
Action for closer intra-African economic cooperation outlined
December 20: Kano Maitatsine fundamentalist Muslims uprising; 4,000-6,000 people dead
This year: Chief MKO Abiola sets up The Concord Group of Newspapers
Oil production of Nigeria declines from 2.09 mbpd (January) to 0.64 mbpd (August) to 0.5 mbpd in early 1982
Shagari negotiates N2.5 billion loan with IMF, N1.5 billion with 25 European, American and Middle-Eastern countries(July) and $180 million credit loan from the US (November)
1981-1983
World Oil Market glut
1981
May 11-15: National Workers' Strike over minimum wage payment
May 20: Chinyere Onyenucheya, first Nigerian commercial pilot,flies in from the US
June 23: Governor Balarabe Musa impeached by Kaduna State House of Assembly
July 10: Communal violence erupts in Kano
October 1: President Shagari announces presidential pardon for former head of state General Yakubu Gowon over February 13, 1976 abortive coup that killed Murtala Mohammed
This year:Nigeria and Cameroon have border skirmishes
1982
February 12: Pope John Paul II arrives for a six-day visit
March: General workers' strike by Electricity and gas workers. Other strikes by ASUU, medical doctors follow throughout the year
April 15: Archbishop Runcie of the Church of England arrives on a two-week visit
May 18: Pardon of Ojukwu, former leader of Biafra, issued by president Shagari
June 18: Ojukwu arrives from 12-year exile in Ivory Coast
1983
The NPN strengthens its hold on power in fresh elections but the
civilian government is overthrown by General Muhammadu Buhari on December 31.
January 17: Federal government orders aliens to leave within 14 days. Over two million (illegal) aliens forcibly expelled
April 17: Alhaji Aminu Kano dies
November 27: Nigeria Airways F28 aircrash in Emene, near Enugu,kills at least 66 people
December 5: Gowon flies in from exile after eight years absence
Miss Franca Afegbua becomes Nigeria's first female senator on winning election
This year: Several workers' strikes continue
1984
May 31 - December 13: Former Governors Bisi Onabanjo of Ogun,
Melford Okilo of Rivers, Ambrose Alli of Bendel, Jim Nwobodo of Anambra, Barkin Zuwo of Kano, Adamu Atta of Kwara, Aper Aku of Benue, Awwal Ibrahim of Kwara are sentenced to long-term imprisonments (ranging from 21 to 252 years) by the Buhari regime for various corruption charges using Special Military Tribunals
July 5: Attempted "crate" kidnap of Alhaji Umaru Dikko from Britain by the Buhari regime
November 8: Fela Anikulapo-Kuti jailed 5 years in Lagos for foreign currency smuggling
December 17: Dr. Michael Okpara dies at age 64
December: General Mamman Vatsa and co. accused of alleged coup plot
This year: Boxer Peter Kongewachi wins Nigeria's first ever Olympic Games medal in Los Angeles
Decree 20: death penalty for oil-related sabotage (later amended in 1986 to read life imprisonment.)
1985
January 9: Cocoa House, Ibadan, once Africa's tallest building,
burns
February 12: Four botched kidnappers of Umaru Dikko jailed at Old Bailey Court, London
April 10: 3 convicted cocaine pushers executed by firing squad at Kirikiri Maximum prison, Lagos
May 10 - 11: Federal government clamps down on illegal aliens; some of them on rampage at Murtala Mohammed airport
May 11: Nigeria wins inaugural FIFA U-16 soccer tournament in China (skipper: Nduka Ugbode)
August 27: General Buhari is removed in a bloodless coup, and replaced by General Ibrahim Babangida, who becomes Nigeria's first military president
August 30: AFRC announces release of 87 political detainees
September 2: New military governors sworn in
October 1: Babangida announces 15-month economic emergency
1986
January 29: After Nigeria's membership in the Organisation of
Islamic States (OIC) alleged, General Shagaya panel set up to investigate implication of membership
February 25: General Maman Vatsa and 10 others sentenced to death for coup plotting
March 23: Fela Anikulapo-Kuti released from prison
October 6: Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe removed as Chief of General Staff and replaced by Rear Admiral Augustus Aikhomu
October 16: Wole Soyinka wins 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature
October 19: Dele Giwa, Editor-in-Chief, NewsWatch, is killed by parcel bomb
This year: An IMF-style structural adjustment programme (SAP) is initiated.
May-June - major unrest in Nigerian universities, with ASUU and Labour congress joining in. NANS banned again.
1987
May 9: Chief Obafemi Awolowo, former Premier of Western Region
and Federal Leader of the Opposition, and Leader of the Yoruba, dies
May 12: University of Ife renamed Obafemi Awolowo University
July 1: Babangida announces a 1990 hand-over date
September 23: Number of states increased by 2 to a total of 21, and number of local governments increased to 449
1988
January 7: Margaret Thatcher pays official visit to Nigeria
July 7: ASUU proscribed for refusal by members to return to work
November 10: Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki is new Sultan of Sokoto
This year: Babangida dissolves Nigerian Labor Congress Execo and replaces with Sole Administrator
1989
February 28: Prof. Eme Awa is dismissed as National Electoral
Commission (NEC) chairman and replaced by Prof. Humphrey Nwosu
March 28: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain visits Nigeria briefly
May 3: A new constitution is signed into law, ban on politics lifted and 143 local governments created
May 24: University of Benin students begin demonstrations that soon spread across the country
May 31: Major violent anti-SAP demonstrations in Lagos
August 12: Footballer Sam Okwaraji dies in match between Nigeria and Angola. Seven fans also die of suffocation at National Stadium, Lagos.
September 21: Ex-Governor Prof. Ambrose Alli of Bendel State dies
October 7: Babangida dissolves freely-formed 13 political National Republican Convention (NRC) - "a little to the left, a little to the right."
October 10: December elections postponed
October 18: Chief Emeka Anyaoku becomes Commonwealth Sec.-General
December 4: Manifestoes of SDP and NRC released
This year: Babangida goes on a state visit to Britain
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) set up
Guides
