Following the death of the military
dictator and
de facto ruler of Nigeria General
Sani Abacha in 1998, his successor, General
Abdulsalami Abubakar, initiated the transition which heralded Nigeria's return to democratic rule in 1999. The ban on political activities was lifted, and political prisoners were released from detention facilities. The constitution was modeled after that of the ill-fated
Nigerian Second Republic—which saw the
Westminster system of government jettisoned in favor of a system closer to the
American presidential system. Political parties were formed, including the
People's Democratic Party (PDP),
All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and the
Alliance for Democracy (AD), and elections were set for April 1999. In the widely monitored 1999 election, former military ruler
Olusegun Obasanjo was elected on the PDP platform. On 29 May 1999, Obasanjo was sworn in as the
country's president and commander-in-chief. In the controversial
general election on 21 April 2007,
Umaru Yar'Adua of the PDP was elected president. Following the death of Yar'Adua on 5 May 2010,
Goodluck Jonathan became the third (and interim) president. The next year, Johnathan won an election that was largely accredited as freer and fairer than all the previous elections of the Fourth Republic. Former dictator
Muhammadu Buhari won the 28 March 2015
general election, ending sixteen years (1999–2015) of PDP rule. On 29 May 2015, Buhari was sworn in as the president of Nigeria, becoming the first opposition figure to win a presidential election since independence in 1960. All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate
Bola Tinubu won the February 2023 presidential
election to succeed Buhari as Nigeria's next president. However, the opposition accused the government of electoral fraud during the polling. On 29 May 2023, Tinubu was sworn in as Nigeria's president. ==Political parties==