Military dictatorship in Nigeria
The military dictatorship in Nigeria was a period when members of the Nigerian Armed Forces held power in Nigeria from 1966 to 1999 with an interregnum from 1979 to 1983. The military was able to rise to power often with the tacit support of the elite through coup d'états. Since the country became a republic in 1963, there has been a series of military coups in Nigeria.
Major General Muhammadu Buhari
General Abdulsalam Abubakar
A military dictatorship, or a military regime, is a type of dictatorship in which power is held by one or more military officers. Military dictatorships are led by either a single military dictator, known as a strongman, or by a council of military officers known as a military junta. They are most often formed by military coups or by the empowerment of the military through a popular uprising in times of domestic unrest or instability. The military nominally seeks power to restore order or fight corruption, but the personal motivations of military officers will vary.
Polish dictator Józef Piłsudski and fellow military officers during the May Coup in 1926
Military dictator Jean-Bédel Bokassa of the Central African Empire was overthrown by a French military invasion.
A crowd during the end of the civic-military dictatorship of Uruguay in 1983
Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet and his Government Junta