the wounds. Ojukwu fled into exile. A few Biafran
officers were imprisoned for a short time, but
many Ibos were reinstated in federal jobs.
Unfortunately, Gowon proved to be indecisive
and incompetent as a peacetime leader. Despite
the oil boom which followed the price rise of
1973–4 and huge increases in export earnings,
the development plans of the 1970s and 1980s
did not bring greater prosperity to the majority
of the people. Money was made by a business
elite; industry, transport and social services
expanded; but agricultural growth could not keep
pace with a rapidly increasing population.
In 1975 General Gowon was overthrown by
another military coup, and the anti-corruption
drive that followed led to the dismissal of some
10,000 bureaucrats. During an army mutiny in
1976 the head of state was murdered and another
general succeeded. By then the oil boom was over
and the Nigerian economy fell into deficit.
Economic development was hindered by political
instability. In 1979 the military handed the gov-
ernment back to the civilians, but this Second
Republic lasted only until 1983, when another
coup restored the military to power with promises
to hand the country back to civilian rule, when
the corrupt politicians of the First and Second
Republic would be barred from office. Although
Nigeria’s oil earnings reached a peak in 1982 fol-
lowing the 1979–80 price rise, a flood of imports
created a huge foreign debt in less than a decade.
Nigeria, once a country of promise, at inde-
pendence has suffered sixteen years of military mis-
rule. The eighth-largest oil producers in the world,
the influx of petrodollars into the state coffers have
utterly corrupted the country and brought it to the
brink of ruin. The lowest point was reached when
a general, Sani Abacha, manoeuvred himself into
power in 1993. The Yoruba chief Moshood Abida
who had won the elections was thrown into prison,
his wife was mysteriously shot in 1996 and he died
in prison. Abacha and his family looted the coun-734 AFRICA AFTER 1945: CONFLICT AND THE THREAT OF FAMINE
Nigerian civil war victims, 1967. © Associated Press, AP