Major General Muhammadu Buhari, Chairman of the Supreme Military Council of Nigeria, is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Major General Ibrahim Babangida.
Muhammadu Buhari
Muhammadu Buhari was a Nigerian general and politician who ruled as military dictator of Nigeria from 1983 to 1985, and later served as the democratically elected civilian president of Nigeria from 2015 to 2023.
Supreme Military Council of Nigeria (1983–1985)
The Supreme Military Council was the body that ruled Nigeria after the 1983 Nigerian coup d'état. Its chairman, Muhammadu Buhari, was the head of state. It lasted until the 1985 Nigerian coup d'état, when Ibrahim Babangida replaced the body with a new Armed Forces Ruling Council.
1985 Nigerian coup d'état
The 1985 Nigerian coup d'état was a military coup which took place in Nigeria on 27 August 1985 when a faction of mid-level Armed Forces officers, led by the Chief of Army Staff Major-General Ibrahim Babangida, overthrew the government of Major General Muhammadu Buhari. Buhari was then detained in Benin City until 1988. Babangida justified the coup by saying that Buhari failed to deal with the country's economic problems by implementing Buharism, and promised "to rejuvenate the economy ravaged by decades of government mismanagement and corruption". Babangida then replaced the ruling Supreme Military Council (SMC) with a new Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC), which lasted until 1993. The regime survived a coup attempt in 1986 and 1990.
Ibrahim Babangida
Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida is a Nigerian general and politician who ruled as military president of Nigeria from 1985 when he orchestrated a coup d'état against Muhammadu Buhari, until his resignation in 1993 as a result of the crisis of the Third Republic.