Who was chairman of the Transitional Council when it was inaugurated in January 1993?

Analyze the question You are asked who chaired the Transitional Council when it was inaugurated in January 1993. This is a Nigerian political history question about the late Babangida transition programme.

Concept and background

• General Ibrahim Babangida's transition to civil rule was repeatedly extended.
• In January 1993 he set up the Transitional Council (alongside the National Defence and Security Council) to run the government's day-to-day affairs until a handover to civilians.
• Babangida remained President and Head of State. The Council's chairman was a civilian, and its head was Chief Ernest Adegunle Shonekan, a businessman and former chairman of the United Africa Company (UAC).

Step by step

1. Option A, Bashir Othman Tofa, was the NRC presidential candidate in the June 12, 1993 election. He was not Council chairman.
2. Option C, General Sani Abacha, was Defence Minister and Chief of Defence Staff. He later took over in November 1993 after Shonekan's Interim National Government was removed.
3. Option D, Ibrahim Babangida, was Head of State and did not chair the Council.
4. Option E, Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (M.K.O.) Abiola, was the SDP presidential candidate and the presumed winner of the June 12 election.
5. Option B, Chief Ernest Shonekan, was appointed chairman of the Transitional Council in January 1993. He later headed the Interim National Government after Babangida stepped aside in August 1993.

Answer: B. Chief Ernest Adegunle Shonekan.

Exam tip: Remember the sequence Shonekan → Abacha. Shonekan chaired the Transitional Council (Jan 1993) and then led the Interim National Government (Aug-Nov 1993). Abacha ended it in November 1993. Also, Tofa and Abiola are linked to the June 12, 1993 election, so they are the "candidates" in such questions.