time, General Sani Abacha died of a heart attack. Abdulsalam Abubakar took his, and initially was still promising a return to civilian rule. Abubakars initial transition plan was to take the nation on a path of political and economic reform. Shortly after, in February of 1999, another presidential election took place between the former president, Olusegun Obasanjo (of Yoruba), and another Nigerian, Olu Falae. Jimmy Carter went to Nigeria to monitor the election and verify that it was a fair election. Olusegun Obasanjo won over 60% of the votes and on on May 29, 1999, another military took over power from Abubakar (Lyman & Cotton, 2000).The military branch of the government has the highest power in the country, and they are in control of running the country in general (though in the cases of the military, the rule tends to be more dictator than democratic). The federal government is next in charge of running the country, and is bound by the rules of the constitution. The federal government structure is divided into 3 main branches: the executive, legislative, and judicial. At the state levels, the same three branches of government exist which is divided into the executive and legislative branch which consists of the State house of representatives, and the Cabinet which consists of a group of ministers that have been appointed to oversee certain areas of the government. Under the federal government there are 28 cabinets set up, for education, agriculture, employment, etc. The Third Republic, is a form of civilian governmetn devised by the present Federal Military Goverernment (FMG) in which the president has final say over any democratic decisions made the senate any legislative houses. When General Babangida took power in 1985 this had been the first government that officially addressed the women question and placed it explicitly on its political agenda (Abdullah, 1993). There are no legal impediments to political participation...
