General Sani Abacha (20 September 1943 – 8 June 1998) was a Nigerian military dictator and politician. He was the de facto President of Nigeria from 1993 to 1998. His regime was tied to human rights violations and allegations of corruption.

A Kanuri from Borno by tribe, Abacha was born and brought up in Kano, Nigeria. He attended the Nigerian Military School and Mons Officer Cadet School before being commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in 1963.

Abacha was commissioned in 1963, after he had attended the Mons Defence Officers cadet Training College in Aldershot, England. Before then, he had attended the Nigerian Military Training College in Kaduna. He took part in the countercoup of July 1967, from the conceptual stage, and may have been a participant in the Lagos or Abeokuta phases of the January 1966 coup. He was also a prominent figure in three coup d'etats of later decades, the first two of which brought and removed General Muhammadu Buhari from power in 1983. When General Ibrahim Babangida was named President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 1985, Abacha was named Chief of Army Staff. He was later appointed Minister of Defence in 1990.

Oluṣẹgun Mathew Okikiọla Arẹmu Ọbasanjọ, GCFR (/oʊˈbɑːsəndʒoʊ/; Yoruba: [olúʃɛ̙́ɡũ ɒ̙básandʒɒ̙́]; born circa 5 March 1937) is a former Nigerian Army general and former President of Nigeria. A Nigerian of Yoruba descent, Obasanjo was a career soldier before serving twice as his nation's head of state, as a military ruler between 13 February 1976 to 1 October 1979; and as elected President from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007.

His current home is Abeokuta, the Capital City of Ogun State, where he is a nobleman as the holder of the titles of the Balogun of the Owu Lineage and the Ekerin Balogun of the Egba clan of Yorubaland.

Ọbasanjọ was born in Ogun State; and grew up in Owu (Abeokuta). His first name, Olusegun, means "The Lord is victorious".

As a young man of 21, he enlisted in the Nigerian Army in 1958. He trained at Aldershot, and was commissioned as an officer in the Nigerian Army. He served at 1 Area Command in Kaduna. Promoted to Chief Army Engineer, he was made commander of 2 Area Command from July 1967, which was redesignated 2 Division Rear, and then the Ibadan Garrison Organisation. He was also trained in DSSC, Wellington. During the Nigerian Civil War, he commanded the Army's 3 Marine Commando Division that took Owerri, effectively bringing an end to the civil war.

Fela Anikulapo Kuti (15 October 1938 — 2 August 1997), or simply Fela ([feˈlæ]), was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick.

Fela was born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria into a middle-class family. His mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was a feminist activist in the anti-colonial movement and his father, Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, a Protestant minister and school principal, was the first president of the Nigerian Union of Teachers. His brothers, Beko Ransome-Kuti and Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, both medical doctors, are well known in Nigeria. Fela was a first cousin to the Nigerian writer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, the first African to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.

Fela was sent to London in 1958 to study medicine but decided to study music instead at the Trinity College of Music. While there, he formed the band Koola Lobitos, playing a fusion of jazz and highlife. In 1960, Fela married his first wife, Remilekun (Remi) Taylor, with whom he would have three children (Femi, Yeni, and Sola). In 1963, Fela moved back to Nigeria, re-formed Koola Lobitos and trained as a radio producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. He played for some time with Victor Olaiya and his All Stars.

Donaldson Oladipo Diya (born 3 April 1944) is a retired Lt. General in the Nigerian Army. He was appointed Military Governor of Ogun State from January 1984 to August 1985. As Chief of the General Staff, he was the de facto Vice President of Nigeria during the Sani Abacha military junta from 1994 until he was arrested for treason in 1997. His Principal Staff Officer during this period was Bode George, who went on to have a stormy career with the People's Democratic Party after democracy was restored in 1999.

Donaldson Oladipo Diya was born on 3 April 1944 at Odogbolu, Ogun State, then Western Region, Nigeria. He was educated at the Methodist Primary School, Lagos, the Odogbolu Grammar School, and then at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna. He later attended the US Army School of Infantry, the Command and Staff College, Jaji (1980–1981) and the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru. While serving in the military, Diya studied Law at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he obtained an LLB degree, and then at the Nigerian Law School, where he was called to bar as Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

Abdulkareem Adisa was a Nigerian Major-General who was Military Governor of Oyo State (August 1990 - January 1992) during the military regime of Major-General Ibrahim Babangida. He was convicted for involvement in an attempted coup against military head of state General Sani Abacha in 1997, and was on death row when Abacha died in June 1998. He was subsequently pardoned.

Abdulkareem Adisa was born in Ilorin, now in Kwara State. As a Lieutenant during the Nigerian Civil War, he was captured by Biafran forces in August 1967, and was detained until January 1970.

Abdulkareem Adisa was appointed Military Governor of Oyo State in August 1990 by the head of state, Major-General Ibrahim Babangida, holding office until January 1992. While governor of Oyo State, Adisa erected a statue of the unknown soldier in front of government house, Ibadan. This statue was destroyed and replaced with a statue of Obafemi Awolowo by Governor Lam Adeshina. The second statue was pulled down a few days after Governor Adeshina left office.