Nigeria through time
Drag the slider — or press play — to watch the map redraw itself and see who held power. Switch between the governors and the State Houses of Assembly; colour shows the party, grey is military rule, and stripes mark a seat held by a party it wasn't elected to.
1999
loading rulers…36 states + FCT
Gen. Abacha · Six final states (including Zamfara) completed today's 36-state federation. source ↗
Federal—
19142026
Tap a state to see who governed it in 1999, and to clip the timeline to its lifespan.
Ruling party · 1999
Who governed each unit · 1999
Boundaries: Nigeria's 1914–1996 reorganisations. Leaders & legislatures: worldstatesmen.org, Wikipedia, IPU Parline, Britannica and contemporaneous reporting, reconciled across eras (federal heads of state, the National Assembly by term, governors, and the State Houses of Assembly with the 2025–26 defections). Some early assembly seat splits are party-only. Flags via Wikimedia Commons. An E Don Kast / StayGIS project.