Death patterns among Nigerian leaders.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to establish the patterns of death amongst Nigerian leaders since independence, thus providing a feasible avenue to avoid their recurrence if possible especially amongst the political elite who currently hold power.
Using available unclassified authentic public information, all leaders who had ruled Nigeria since her independence on 1 October, 1960 until her 45th birthday on 1 October 2005, irrespective of whether they are dead or alive were included. Data was extracted and analyzed.
On 1 October 2005, Nigeria celebrated 45 years as a sovereign nation. Within this period, the country has had eleven leaders, all of whom were men. Only three (27.3%) were civilians, while eight (72.7%) were army generals. Of the eleven leaders, four (36.4%) had died before Nigeria reached its 45th birthday and all of these four (100%) died while still in office. Three of the dead leaders (75%) were assassinated, while one (25%) died suddenly in mysterious circumstances, believed to be the result of poisoning by unknown external powerful interest groups. Three of the deaths (75%) occurred during violent periods of Nigeria's checkered history (1966-1970 and 1993-1999), showing that periods of national and international strife appeared to be the weakest link in chains of events that led to their death while in office. Autopsies were neither requested nor performed on any of the dead leaders, signifying an entrenched culture of nonchalance, a lack of a coordinated national coroner's law and contempt for accurate and detailed death records. Worse still, no valid tenable death certificate has ever been issued. In other words, no attempt has been made to determine the cause of death of four of the nation's former leaders. Only hurried national burials were accorded two (50%) of them while the other two (50%), who died in the coup and revenge coup of 1966, were completely neglected, and not even given a decent national burial.
The facts identified above will serve as a landmark to highlight an existing problem, and thus bring the issue to the attention of policy-makers and the political elite. The overall expected benefit is that nations like Nigeria can focus on the issue of orderly succession and the peaceful handing-over of government to duly transparently elected national leaders and all efforts should be made to avoid holding on to power unnecessarily. The tenets of democracy shall be upheld and transparent elections take place so as to reduce national tension and strife to the barest minimum. We also strongly recommend a review and improvement of Nigeria's national coroner's laws. ‎

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Original Article
Death patterns among Nigerian leaders
Kenneth C. Eze,P a,*
P Ozoemenam M. Ugochukwu,Pb
P Martin A. NzegwuP c
Pa
PDepartment of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, Anambra State,
Nigeria.
PDepartment of History and International Studies, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.
PDepartment of Morbid Anatomy, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital Enugu, Nigeria.


KEY WORDS

Nigeria
Leader
Pattern of death




























Accepted 2009-11-03
© 2010 KUMS, All right reserved
Pb
Pc

Abstract:
Background: : The aim of this study is to establish the patterns of death amongst Nigerian leaders since
independence, thus providing a feasible avenue to avoid their recurrence if possible especially amongst
the political elite who currently hold power.
Methods: : Using available unclassified authentic public information, all leaders who had ruled Nigeria
since her independence on 1 October, 1960 until her 45th birthday on 1 October 2005, irrespective of
whether they are dead or alive were included. Data was extracted and analyzed.
Results: : On 1 October 2005, Nigeria celebrated 45 years as a sovereign nation. Within this period,
the country has had eleven leaders, all of whom were men. Only three (27.3%) were civilians, while
eight (72.7%) were army generals. Of the eleven leaders, four (36.4%) had died before Nigeria
reached its 45th birthday and all of these four (100%) died while still in office. Three of the dead
leaders (75%) were assassinated, while one (25%) died suddenly in mysterious circumstances, believed
to be the result of poisoning by unknown external powerful interest groups. Three of the deaths (75%)
occurred during violent periods of Nigeria’s checkered history (1966-1970 and 1993-1999), showing
that periods of national and international strife appeared to be the weakest link in chains of events that
led to their death while in office. Autopsies were neither requested nor performed on any of the dead
leaders, signifying an entrenched culture of nonchalance, a lack of a coordinated national coroner’s law
and contempt for accurate and detailed death records. Worse still, no valid tenable death certificate
has ever been issued. In other words, no attempt has been made to determine the cause of death of
four of the nation’s former leaders. Only hurried national burials were accorded two (50%) of them
while the other two (50%), who died in the coup and revenge coup of 1966, were completely
neglected, and not even given a decent national burial.
Conclusions: : The facts identified above will serve as a landmark to highlight an existing problem, and
thus bring the issue to the attention of policy-makers and the political elite. The overall expected benefit
is that nations like Nigeria can focus on the issue of orderly succession and the peaceful handing-over of
government to duly transparently elected national leaders and all efforts should be made to avoid
holding on to power unnecessarily. The tenets of democracy shall be upheld and transparent elections
take place so as to reduce national tension and strife to the barest minimum. We also strongly
recommend a review and improvement of Nigeria’s national coroner’s laws.

*Corresponding Author at:
Dr. Eze, 23TDepartment of Radiology, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Teaching hospital Nnewi, Anambra-state, Nigeria, Phone: +234 8037275383,
Email: Uezechallenge@yahoo.co.uk U23T(Dr. Eze).
© 2010 KUMS, All right reserved

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S
have died, most of them while in office, and no organized or
formal study has attempted to document the pattern of death
amongst these leaders, despite the fact that unclassified
credible information is available in the public domain,
including newspaper reports, history books, world almanacs
and social studies papers.
In 1996, the World Health Assembly declared violence as
a leading global public health problem.P1
presented then also cited reports by some authors,P1,2
showed that world leaders most commonly died by violence,
usually assassinations, with 44% dying violently while in office
and 11% dying violently out of office. An unacceptably high
level of violent deaths of world leaders has occurred world-
wide, but most frequently in developing countries and
especially the Middle-East, South-East Asia and sub-Saharan
Africa.P2,3
sub-Saharan Africa, are also known to have very small
volumes of available data for recording and assessing the
immediate and remote causes of such deaths among their
leaders, as well as for other health indices.P2, 4
Other reports on the pattern of death among leaders of
developed countries found stroke, heart disease and cancer to
be the major natural causes of death.P5,6
indicate the decreasing trend of coronary heart disease and
stroke and find that these causes of death are even less
common in leaders than in the general population. Even when
they occurred, they seldom led to disruption of powerP
developing countries.P6
diseases are the leading cause of death in the general
population, they rank extremely low as a cause of death
amongst leaders. Among young men in sub-Saharan Africa
and most other developing countries, homicide, war, road
traffic injury and infectious diseases are the leading causes of
death.P1,3,7,8
infection, hypertension and unsafe abortion are major causes
of death.P9,10
death among the general population in developing countries
are not the same as those afflicting the leaders of such
countries.P2,5,6
This study examines the patterns of death in Nigerian
leaders since independence, in order to bring them to the
attention of the national political elite and policy-makers.
Thus, in agreement with Shiffman,P11
and public policy researchers, identifying the contributing
factors of these deaths, which would otherwise have remained
Introduction

ince Nigeria’s independence from Great Britain on 1
October1960, several leaders or heads of governments
P The paper
P which
P Some of these developing countries, especially in
P These reports also
Punlike in
P In developing countries, while infectious
P In women of childbearing age, hemorrhage,
P It is therefore clear that the leading causes of
P
P other political scientists
hidden to policy-makers, will elicit the required change faster.
The deeper significance of statistics is that they are not only
useful for monitoring purpose but can also act as a catalyst
for action.P12

Methods

The information for this study was obtained over a period of
18 months from public domains including Nigerian national
websites, world almanacs, books of Who‘s Who in Nigeria
and African nation and Nigerian year books.P13-17
information extracted from these published authenticated
sources, include the names of Nigerian heads of state, their
age, how long they were in office, factors that led to their
emergence as leaders as well as the circumstances
surrounding their exit. For those who died, data was available
regarding the date of death, the cause of death and political
factors associated with their emergence and exits from office.
As an exclusion criteria, only information collaborated by all
sources was included while any information not agreed upon
by the sources and incompatible with events at the time was
excluded. Limited publications in this field as well as the
exclusion criteria are responsible for the relatively few
references used for the study.

Results

Nigeria gained it independence from Great Britain on 1
October 1960 and celebrated 45 years as a sovereign
nation in December 2005. Within this period, she had eleven
(11) leaders, all of whole were men. Only three (27.3%)
were civilians while eight (72.7%) were military generals.
One of the military leaders (Olusegun Obasanjo) was
returned as an elected civilian president, many years after
serving and retiring as a military head of state.
Four of the leaders had died before the end of the
period, three (75%) having been assassinated, while one
(25%) died suddenly in mysterious circumstances, believed by
most Nigerians to have been the result of poisoning by as-yet
unnamed powerful external interest groups following the
country’s instability after annulment by a military head of
state of the democratic elections, held on 12 June 1993.P13-15
All four (100%) dead leaders died while still in office. The
oldest of these four leaders when taking up office was
General Sani Abacha, who was 50 years old and the
youngest was General Murtala Mohammed, who came to
power at the age of 38. The longest stay in office among the
dead leaders was 6 years by Tafawa Balawa, followed by 5
years by General Sani Abacha. The remaining two were
P
P The relevant
P

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Table1: Nigerian leaders and cause of their death
no
Name Name State of
Origin
Born Died
/Alive
Aged at 1st
October 2005
(Years)
AAO
(Years)
DO
(Years)
Mode of
entry
Time in office Cause of
death
SHO OSS
1
H1 Balewa Bauchi 12/1912 15/1/1966 54 48 5.29 Civil 1/10/1960 to
15/1/1966
A No Yes
2 H2 Ironsi Abia 3/3/1924 29/7/1966 42 42 0.54 Force * 16/1/1966 to
29/7/1966
A No _
3 H3 Gowon Plateau 19/10/1934 Alive 71 33 9 Force 1/8/1966 to
29/7/1975
_ No Yes
4 H4 Murtala Kano 8/11/1938 13/2/1976 37 37 .54 Force 29/7/1975 to
13/2/1976
A _ _
5 H5 Obasanjo Ogun 5/3/1937 Alive 68 39 3.63 Force ** 13/2/1976 to
1/10/1979
A Yes No
6 H6 Shagari Sokoto 25/5/1925 Alive 80 54 4.25 Civil 1/10/1979 to
31/12/1983
_ No Yes
7 H7 Buhari Katsina 17/12/1942 Alive 63 41 1.67 Force 1/1/1984 to
27/8/1985
_ _ _
8 H8 Babangida Niger 17/8/1941 Alive 64 44 8 Force 27/8/1985 to
26/8/1993
_ No Yes
9 H9 Shonekan Ogun 9/5/1936 Alive 69 57 0.23 Extra-legal 26/8/1993 to
17/11/1993
_ _ No
10 H10 Abacha Kano 20/9/1943 8/6/1998 54 50 4.55 Force 17/11/1993 to
8/6/1998
Natural# No Yes
11 H11 Abdusalami Niger 14/6/1942 Alive 63 56 0.97 Force*** 9/6/1998 to
29/5/1999
_ Yes No
12 H5 $ Obasanjo$ Ogun 5/3/1937 Alive 68 61 6.33 Civil 29/5/1999 to
1/10/2005+
_
* = Inherited office after unsuccessful coup d’état in January 1966 in which he did not participate,
**=Inherited office after an unsuccessful coup d’état in which he did not participate led to the assassination of his immediate boss, the head of state.
***= A military junta selected him after the sudden death of the head of state.
#= Sudden unexplained death of the head of state believed in some quarters to been masterminded by external powers.
+ = In office at the time of this study.
A = Assassination.
AAO= Age at assumption of office, DO = Duration in office, SHO=Successful handover of office, OSS=Overstayed first term/self-allotted time.
$= Second term of H5.
assassinated within 8 months of assuming office. Those who
are still alive are much older than the average life
expectancy of the average Nigerian male (51 years).P13,14
Three (75%) of the four dead leaders were from the
northern part of Nigeria. Two leaders (50%) died in 1966 in
events that eventually lead to a civil war, while one (25%)
died in 1976 and the last one (25%) in 1998. See Table 1.
All deaths were sudden and apparently unnatural,
emphasizing the speed with which the lethal events caused
their deaths. Autopsies were neither requested nor performed
on any of them. Consequently no valid tenable death
certificate has ever been issued in these cases and coroner’s
inquests have never been held to ascertain the valid cause of
death of four of the nation’s former leaders. Hurried national
P
burials were arranged for two of the leaders (50%) while the
other two (50%), who died in the coup and revenge coup of
1966, didn’t even receive a decent national burial.

Discussion

The existence of only a small amount of adequate and
credible literature on the subject matter, possibly due to fear
of retribution following the repression associated with
decades of military rule, as well as the need to corroborate
fully the available information sources before use, may
constitute some limitation to the study. Violent death by
assassination was the mode of death of three (75%) of the
four dead leaders. This percentage is more than the average

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world-wide figure for violent death of national leaders
reported to be 44% while in office and 11% after leaving
office.P2
leaders in Nigeria (75%) is almost double the reported figure
for the rest of the world (44%). These two figures are also
comparatively higher than the percentage of deaths by
violence among the world’s population at large, reported at
3.5%.P3
natural causes further highlights the major significance of
violence, especially assassination, in the epidemiology of
deaths among Nigerian leaders. One leader (Sani Abacha)
died in circumstances which many Nigerians believe may have
been masterminded by unnamed external powerful interest
groups.P13-15
testimony of his trusted aid (Al Mustapha), who publicly
acknowledged that he died (by asphyxiation) in similar
circumstances to those surrounding the death of MKO Abiola,
the opposition leader widely thought to have won the
democratic elections of 12 June 1993. These two deaths were
thought to be the cause of the national crisis that threatened
Nigeria’s existence following the annulment of the aforesaid
elections. Sani Abacha died eating apple, while Abiola was
said to have died after drinking tea. Furthermore, both deaths
occurred in the presence of foreign visitors.P15
coronary heart disease are major causes of death among
leaders from other parts of the world outside office,P2,5,6
Nigeria were the deaths of leaders are mainly associated
with violent causes. It is also worth noting that all deaths of
these Nigerian leaders occurred while they were still in office.
Since 75% of the dead leaders were army generals in
military government, only 12 out of Nigeria’s 45 years of
independence (26.7%) were periods ruled by civilians while
the other 33 years (73.3) was under military rule. Currently
all living Nigerian leaders are aged above the average life
expectancy of Nigerians, and their life expectancy thus far
also compares favorably with those of other Nigerians of the
same socio-economic status. As previously stated, the deaths
of three (75%) out of the four leaders who died in office
occurred in violent periods of Nigeria’s checkered history
(1966-1970 and 1993-1999) showing that periods of


References

P The percentage of violent causes of death among
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characterized by a series of civil revolts, riots, national strikes,
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northern extraction while one (25%) was from the south east,
alluding to the fact that out of the past 11 leaders, including
those alive, 8 (72.7%) were from northern Nigeria, and only
3 (27.3%) were from southern Nigeria. Furthermore, during
the 45 years of Nigerian independence, northern Nigerians
have ruled for 33 (73.3%) while leaders from the South have
ruled for 12 (26.7%) years with very poor attempts to
deepen democratic values and sustain democracy based on
free, fair and transparent elections, ensuring a free press and
promoting the rule of law, equality and social justice. This
study will therefore recommend that everyone must work to
focus on the issue of orderly succession and the peaceful
handing-over of government to duly transparently elected
national leaders. All efforts should be made to avoid holding
on to power unnecessarily and to promote the tenets of
democracy and transparent election.
In conclusion, the paper observes that the percentage of
violent deaths among Nigerian leaders, which stands at 75%,
far exceeds that found amongst other world leaders (44%),
and posits that a lack of a transparent and credible
democratic order, which ensures orderly ascent and transition
to power and good governance, may be the single most
important reason for these avoidable deaths. The paper
strongly recommends a reappraisal of national Nigerian
coroner’s law with a view to improving them.

Funding: This study was funded by the authors.
Competing interest: None declared
P These weak links are generally
19TEthical approval:

19T Not required
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