Portraits of African Leaders

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This topic presents a series of numismatic portraits of political leaders from sub-Saharan Africa, with brief accompanying details, mostly taken from Wikipedia.

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BENIN



Nicéphore Soglo.

Nicéphore Dieudonné Soglo (born 1934) is a Beninese politician. He was Prime Minister of Benin from 1990 to 1991 and President from 1991 to 1996. He was Mayor of Cotonou from 2003 to 2015.

Soglo was born in French Togoland (now the Togolese Republic). He studied law and economics at the University of Paris and the École nationale d'administration. After receiving degrees in law and economics from the University of Paris, Soglo returned to Benin (then called Dahomey). He was the inspector of finance from 1965 to 1967. His cousin, Colonel Christophe Soglo, overthrew President Sourou-Migan Apithy and appointed Nicéphore as minister of finance and economic affairs from December 1965 to December 1966.

Following the 1972 coup that brought Mathieu Kérékou to power, Nicéphore left the country and held positions at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. In the late 1980s, faced with growing dissatisfaction over a stagnant economy, the Kérékou government agreed to convene a national conference that would lead the country towards multiparty democracy. The conference designated Nicéphore Soglo Prime Minister, and he took office on 12 March 1990. The conference produced a constitution that was overwhelmingly approved in a referendum held on 2 December 1990.

In the country's first multiparty presidential election, Soglo took first place in the first round, held on 10 March 1991, with 36.31% of the vote. A run-off against Kérékou followed on 24 March in which Soglo won 67.73% of the vote. That was the first time that an opposition candidate had won an election in post-colonial Francophone Africa. He took office on 4 April 1991.

During his presidency, Soglo attempted to refurbish Benin's devastated economy. These economic measures caused civil unrest and undermined his popularity. Despite these problems, his government was praised for its adherence to democratic principles and respect for human rights.

In the March 1996 presidential election, Soglo again took first place in the first round, but in the second round he was defeated by Mathieu Kérékou, receiving 47.51% of the vote. Soglo alleged election fraud, but this was rejected by the Constitutional Court. He again lost to Kérékou in the March 2001 presidential election. He could not run again in the March 2006 presidential election due to the age limit of 70 years.

Soglo served as Mayor of Cotonou from 2003 to 2015. He was succeeded as Mayor by his son, Léhady Soglo, who had previously served as his deputy.

Benin, 100 000 francs, 1992.

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BIAFRA



Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.

Odumegwu Ojukwu (1933 to 2011) was a Nigerian military leader and politician. He was head of the secessionist state of Biafra during the Nigerian Civil War.

Ojukwu was the son of a successful Igbo businessman. After graduating from the University of Oxford in 1955, he returned to Nigeria to serve as an administrative officer. After two years, however, he joined the army and was rapidly promoted thereafter. In January 1966 a group of largely Igbo junior army officers overthrew Nigeria's civilian government. They were then were forced to hand power to the highest-ranking military officer, Major General T.U. Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, who was also an Igbo. He appointed Lieutenant Colonel Ojukwu as military governor of the mostly Igbo Eastern region.

However, Hausa and Yoruba army officers from the Northern and Western regions feared a government dominated by the Igbo. In July 1966 Northern officers staged a successful countercoup in which Lieutenant Colonel Yakubu Gowon was installed as the new head of state. Under Gowon's rule, Ojukwu retained his command of the Eastern region. Meanwhile, the rising tide of feeling against the Igbo in the Northern region led to large-scale massacres of Igbos by Northerners in May to September 1966.

The Eastern region felt increasingly alienated from the federal military government. Ojukwu's main proposal to end the ethnic strife was a significant devolution of power to the regions. The federal government initially agreed to this in January 1967, but then rejected it soon afterward. Ojukwu responded in March and April 1967 by separating the Eastern regional government's administration and revenues from those of the federal government.

Mounting pressures from his fellow Igbo finally compelled Ojukwu on May 30 1967 to declare the secession of the three states of the Eastern region as the independent sovereign state of the Republic of Biafra. Nigeria's federal government interpreted this as an act of rebellion. Within weeks the conflict had escalated into a full-scale civil war. Federal troops soon afterward invaded Biafra, and civil war broke out in July 1967. Ojukwu led Biafra's unsuccessful struggle to survive as an independent state throughout the civil war. On the eve of Biafra's surrender in 1970, he fled to Côte d'Ivoire, where he was granted asylum.

Estimates of the number of people who died during the Nigerian Civil War vary significantly, from 500,000 to 3,000,000. Causes included battlefield deaths, ethnic cleansing, and starvation.

Ojukwu remained in exile until 1982, when he was pardoned and returned to Nigeria. He joined the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in January 1983. However, his bid for the senate representing the state of Anambra was unsuccessful. He was detained for 10 months following a coup that brought Muhammadu Buhari to power at the end of 1983. In 1993 he once again joined a political party, this time the Social Democratic Party, but he was disqualified from running for president.

Along with other former Nigerian leaders, he was consulted in 1998 by Abdusalam Abubakar, the military head of state, as Nigeria once again began the process of converting from military to civilian rule. In 2003 Ojukwu, representing a new political party that he helped form, the All Progressive Grand Alliance, unsuccessfully ran for president. He ran again in 2007 but was defeated by the ruling party's candidate, Umaru Yar'Adua, in an election that was strongly criticized by international observers as being marred by voting irregularities.

He died in 2011 at the age of 78 in London, England. His body was returned to Nigeria, where Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan arranged a state funeral. He was buried with full military honours, including a 21-gun salute from the Nigerian Army, and thousands of people attended his funeral. He remains a contentious figure in the history of Nigeria. Many Igbo people regard him as a hero who did what was necessary to ensure the survival of Nigeria's Eastern population, while facing the possibility of a genocide after the 1966 coup. Other Nigerians have deemed Biafra's secession unnecessary, blaming Ojukwu for the civil war and accusing him of oppressing Biafra's non-Igbo ethnic minorities.

Biafra, one crown, 1969.

See:  Coins of Biafra.

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