This is the story of how an American magazine named Sani Abacha “Thug of the Year” in 1995 .

General Sani Abacha is perhaps Nigeria’s most enigmatic head of state. He ruled from 1993 until his death in 1998. General Abacha was born on September 20, 1943, in Kano State, northern Nigeria. He is from Kanuri, Borno State. After graduating from the Nigerian Military Training Center in Kaduna, he attended Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot, England, before being commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1963.
Some consider him Nigeria’s most successful coup plotter. He was involved in the July 1966 counter-coup in Nigeria from its conception when he was a second lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion in Kaduna. It is likely that he was also involved in the Lagos or Abeokuta phase of last January’s coup. Abacha fought for Nigeria in the Nigerian Civil War against rising Biafran separatists in the military.
He played an important role in the 1983 coup in Nigeria that brought General Muhammadu Buhari to power and in the August 1985 coup that removed him from power. He declared a coup to overthrow the government of Shehu Shagari.
In 1985, General Ibrahim Babangida was appointed President of Nigeria and Abacha was appointed Chief of Army Staff. In 1990, he was appointed Minister of Defense. After Babangida resigned, an interim government was established led by civilian President Ernest Shonekan.
In 1993, Sani Abacha became the first Nigerian soldier to achieve the official rank of general without skipping any ranks. In the same year, he moved towards his ultimate goal. Shonikan resigned and handed power to Sani Abacha in what was widely viewed as another bloodless coup. In September 1994, he issued a decree placing the government above the jurisdiction of the courts, effectively giving him absolute power.