Chief Ernest Shonekan Is 82nd Today

Chief Ernest Shonekan Is 82nd Today 

Chief Ernest Shonekan is celebrating his 82nd birthday today and we have decided to pay some tribute to the elder statesman with this brief from Wikipedia.

Read below:

Chief Ernest Adegunle Oladeinde Shonekan (born 9 May 1936 in Lagos, Colonial Nigeria) is a British-trained Nigerian lawyer, industrialist, politician and traditional chieftain. He was appointed as interim president of Nigeria by General Ibrahim Babangida on the 26th of August, 1993.

Babangida resigned under pressure to cede control to a democratic government. Shonekan's transitional administration only lasted three months, as a palace coup led by General Sani Abacha forcefully dismantled the remaining democratic institutions and brought the government back under military control on the 17th of November, 1993.

Prior to his political career, Shonekan was the chief executive of the United African Company of Nigeria PLC, a large Nigerian conglomerate.

Interim government

Oloye Shonekan assumed the office of President of Nigeria on the 26th of August, 1993, with Babangida's blessing. The nation was gradually moving towards a stalemate. Shonekan had lobbied for debt cancellation but, after the cancellation of the 12th June elections, most of the western powers had imposed economic sanctions on Nigeria.

Inflation was uncontrollable and most non-oil foreign investment disappeared. The political problems continued. The winner of the June the 12th elections vowed to oppose the interim government. The democracy supporters of southwest Nigeria, Shonekan's region, considered him an obstacle on the nation's path to democracy, social justice, and improving the welfare of the people. During his few months in power, he tried to create a new timetable for democratic return, while his government was hampered by a workers' strike.

Shonekan released political prisoners detained by Babangida. He tried to set a timetable for troop withdrawal from ECOMOG's peacekeeping mission in Liberia. The government also initiated an audit of the accounts of NNPC, the oil giant, an organisation that had many operational inefficiencies. Shonekan's administration introduced a bill to repeal three major draconian decrees of the military government.

His control of the military was loose. This would ultimately prove to be his undoing, as the defence secretary made a military coup and took control of power in November 1993, just a few months into the administration.

We say a happy birthday to baba..........


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