income would only reach $395, leaving Nigeria a low-income country (according to the World Bank), for the first time since its independence, almost thirty years prior. (Metz, 1991)Within the next few years, Babangida and his government refused to permit over a dozen political parties to exist, while supporting only two parties to be legal (the SDP and the RNC). To ensure his position in the future civilian elections (only three years away), Babangida outlawed former politicians to run for office (kind of like what happened in communist Soviet Union). Within three years of each other, Babangida had approved of twenty new states to join the federation, and almost a gross of local government districts to be set up.Just in time for local, and governor elections, the government repealed its anti-veteran politican campaigns, and allowed them to be included in politics, only to have a new wave of innovative politicians to dominate, and take over local governments. The intimidated General Babangida pushed the civilian elections back three months, and then in October 1992, during the presidential primaries, there was an outbreak of confusion from all the illegal incidents that occurred from corruption. There was madness and violence from boycotts. So once again the panic-stricken Babangida drove the elections back, this time to the summer of 1993, after canceling the elections and banning both parties' candidates. However, the new candidates were also both accused of corruption, but it didn't affect the outcome, leaving Moshood Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), as the winner, until June 26, 1993, when Babangida nationally announced that the elections were void, due to corruption, and arrested Abiola. A country without a leader is kind of like a dog without an owner, so Babangida began a temporary military government, and ran it like a business, under Ernest Shonekan, leading to many outbursts of disgust, including the infamous...
