change (such as the Ogoni Nine); and the general oppressiveness of the Abacha regime – increased disenchantment among Nigerians and stirred civil society to action. Internationally, Nigeria was relegated to the status of a pariah state and was suspended from the Commonwealth. 91. The National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) was formed by activists who clamoured for the end of military rule. Faced with the mounting pressure, on 1 October 1995, Abacha outlined a three-year programme for transition to civilian rule. Local elections were held in December 1997, and state assembly and gubernatorial elections in April 1998. Abacha was poised to run for office and transform himself into a civilian president in the elections planned for October 1998, but died on 8 June 1998. 92. Abacha was replaced by General Abdulsalami Abubakar who, in July 1998, commuted the sentences and released those accused in the alleged 1997 coup. Under Abubakar’s administration, the 1999 constitution was adopted and civilian rule restored when General Olusegun Obasanjo won the elections in 1999. General Abubakar thus successfully midwifed the transition programme that led to the formal end of military rule in Nigeria. 93. Former military head of state Olusegun Obasanjo, freed from prison by President Abubakar, ran as a civilian candidate and won the presidential election. A new constitution based largely on the suspended 1979 constitution was launched on 29 May 1999, a date which coincided with the inauguration of the new civilian president. 94. President Olusegun Obasanjo, in ushering in a new democratic dispensation, took over a country that faced many problems, including a breakdown in the rule of law and a highly militarised political system. Economically, the legacy of the military manifested itself through: erratic and distorted policies; public-sector dominance in production and consumption; unbridled corruption and pervasive rent-seeking, facilitated by the fact that government was the hub of the country’s economic activities; high volatility of macroeconomic aggregates; weak institutional capacity for economic policy management and coordination; unsustainability of public finance at all levels of government; large external and domestic debt overhang; and the boom-and-bust mode of economic management. 95. President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration articulated solutions and adapted policy options aimed at reversing the previous negative trends and repositioning Nigeria for stability, broad-based growth, development and prosperity for all. These were enunciated in the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), which was the mainstay of the administration’s response to the overall development challenges of the country. NEEDS was launched in May 2004 as Nigeria’s home-grown growth and poverty reduction strategy for the period 2003– 2007. It was articulated to refocus government policies and programmes towards enhancing the provision of basic social services and support for private initiatives in the productive sectors of the economy. 96. NEEDS redefined the role of government as an enabler, facilitator and regulator, thereby shrinking the domain of the state without making it 47