In 2015, Nigeria elected a retired general who promised to kill corruption and crush Boko Haram. Eight years later, he left behind about 63,000 dead, the naira in ruins, and a Supreme Court calling his last act "autocratic".This is episode 15 of Power & Plunder, a documentary series chronicling every head of state Nigeria has had since independence on October 1, 1960. My Sources:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t6M-kq52o0yCaZVjHgVEgRt5Dff3Fk7YFi005dxvczg/edit?usp=sharing

This is episode 14 of Power & Plunder, a documentary series chronicling every head of state Nigeria has had since independence on October 1, 1960. My Sources:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BTEtDc1FwIMZjiafI-lj61C4hNsScOBxLNfl64-FxqA/edit?usp=sharing

A quiet chemistry teacher is handpicked to lead Africa's most populous nation — but the election that put him there was stolen, his body was already failing, and the people closest to him would use his dying days to fight for control of a country of 150 million people.This is episode 13 of Power & Plunder, a documentary series chronicling every head of state Nigeria has had since independence on October 1, 1960. My Sources:https://docs.google.com/document/d/14xxfmTYCeSsZNG9Y43H0ZlHIhFNCwVkzzz51xLgeQ08/edit?usp=sharing

In June 1998, a broke ex-general walks out of a Nigerian prison cell. Eleven months later, he's the president of Africa's most populous nation and almost none of it was his idea.This is episode 12 of Power & Plunder, a documentary series chronicling every head of state Nigeria has had since independence on October 1, 1960. My Sources:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cuIY0z8rQzHn-JazubvhSIAflXzgmrJKfsTw3_24jVM/edit?usp=sharingYou can now support my work by donating here: https://judebela.com/donate

General Abdulsalami Abubakar presided over the most consequential 11 months in modern Nigerian history. A compressed, turbulent, and deeply contradictory transition from military dictatorship to civilian rule that began with one suspicious death, was punctuated by another, and ended with a flawed election that nonetheless inaugurated the Fourth Republic. This is episode 11 of Power and Plunder, a 16-episode documentary series chronicling every head of state Nigeria has had since independence on October 1, 1960. Each episode covers a single leader — from the moment they seized or received power to the moment they lost it or gave it away.My Sources:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V_3OgXoCgdxEhZRY6Y4uK86TYwPECvJ79RFqvMFD2NU/edit?usp=sharing

General Sani Abacha ruled Nigeria from November 17, 1993 until his death on June 8, 1998 — a period that produced the worst human rights abuses, the most brazen kleptocracy, and the deepest international isolation in the country's post-independence history. This is the story of how he did it all.This is Episode 10 of Power & Plunder — a 16-part series covering every head of state Nigeria has had since independence. Built on declassified British and American archives, court records, and primary sources.My sources:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z_OUKYYuVwQuqO3N94PzomQxFWWxIo9Of48wlJl6dhI/edit?usp=sharing

When Nigeria's military dictator, Ibrahim Babangida annulled Africa's freest election in 1993 and installed a corporate boardroom chairman as a civilian placeholder, the 83-day presidency that followed was a meticulously engineered trap designed to hand power to the one general who had been positioning himself for it all along.This is the story of The 83-Day President Nigeria Tried To Forget.This is Episode 9 of Power & Plunder — a 16-part series covering every head of state Nigeria has had since independence. Built on declassified British and American archives, court records, and primary sources.My Sources:https://docs.google.com/document/d/10ocwgCCOdOpcyQVV738wlIYRy4aDBM26dxQcwVwlhwg/edit?usp=sharing

How did one military officer hold power for eight years, preside over the disappearance of $12.4 billion, build Africa's most sophisticated system of political corruption, annul the freest election his country ever held, and retire to a mansion without ever being prosecuted?This is the story of Ibrahim Babangida, the Smiling Dictator Who Stole Nigeria’s DemocracyThis is Episode 8 of Power & Plunder — a 16-part series covering every head of state Nigeria has had since independence. Built on declassified British and American archives, court records, and primary sources.