On 29 May 1999, Abubakar transferred power to the winner of the 1999 presidential election, former military ruler General Olusegun Obasanjo as the second democratically elected civilian President of Nigeria heralding the beginning of the Fourth Nigerian Republic.
Elections that year led to a coalition government with a nonwhite majority, marking the official end of the apartheid system.
In his inaugural address, Mandela, who spent 27 years of his life as a political prisoner of the South African government, declared that “the time for the healing of the wounds has come.”
July 23–26, 1993 saw the first multiparty presidential and legislative elections held under the new constitution, as well as a resounding victory for President René.
In late 1993 a presidential council was formed, the life presidency was abolished and a new constitution was put into place. In 1994 the first multi-party elections were held in Malawi.
Extensive protests made Zambian President Kaunda realise the need for reform. He promised a referendum on multiparty democracy, and lifted the ban on political parties. After pressure for the new parties the referendum was canceled in favour of direct multiparty election.
The Bicesse Accords, also known as the Estoril Accords, laid out a transition to multi-party democracy in Angola under the supervision of the United Nations’ UNAVEM II mission. President José Eduardo dos Santos of the MPLA and Jonas Savimbi of UNITA signed the accord in Lisbon, Portugal on May 31, 1991.
The United Democratic Front was a major anti-apartheid organisation of the 1980s. The non-racial coalition of about 400 civic, church, students’, workers’ and other organisations was formed to fight the new Tricameral Parliament.
The WHO launched an intensified plan to eradicate smallpox in 1967. Widespread immunization and surveillance were conducted around the world for several years. The last known natural case was in Somalia in 1977.
Negotiations with the British resulted in an agreement under which the Seychelles became an independent republic within the Commonwealth on June 29, 1976.
