1979 Nigerian presidential election
E886222
The 1979 Nigerian presidential election was the landmark vote that ended military rule and brought Alhaji Shehu Shagari to power as the first executive president of Nigeria’s Second Republic.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| 1979 Nigerian general election | 3 |
| 1979 Nigerian presidential election canonical | 2 |
| Nigerian general election, 1979 | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10777470 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: 1979 Nigerian presidential election Context triple: [Second Republic of Nigeria, firstPresidentialElection, 1979 Nigerian presidential election]
-
A.
2003 Nigerian general election
The 2003 Nigerian general election was a nationwide poll that marked Nigeria’s second general election after the end of military rule, featuring multiple parties competing for the presidency, National Assembly, and state offices amid widespread reports of irregularities.
-
B.
2011 Nigerian presidential election
The 2011 Nigerian presidential election was a national vote in which incumbent Goodluck Jonathan defeated opposition candidates, including Muhammadu Buhari, amid significant regional and religious tensions.
-
C.
Second Republic of Nigeria
The Second Republic of Nigeria was the period of civilian democratic rule from 1979 to 1983, marked by a presidential system modeled on that of the United States and ended by a military coup.
-
D.
Fourth Republic of Nigeria
The Fourth Republic of Nigeria is the current democratic era of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, beginning in 1999 after military rule and characterized by a presidential system and multi-party elections.
-
E.
1989 Ugandan National Resistance Council election
The 1989 Ugandan National Resistance Council election was a pivotal legislative election that helped consolidate Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Movement government following its rise to power after years of conflict.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: 1979 Nigerian presidential election Target entity description: The 1979 Nigerian presidential election was the landmark vote that ended military rule and brought Alhaji Shehu Shagari to power as the first executive president of Nigeria’s Second Republic.
-
A.
2003 Nigerian general election
The 2003 Nigerian general election was a nationwide poll that marked Nigeria’s second general election after the end of military rule, featuring multiple parties competing for the presidency, National Assembly, and state offices amid widespread reports of irregularities.
-
B.
2011 Nigerian presidential election
The 2011 Nigerian presidential election was a national vote in which incumbent Goodluck Jonathan defeated opposition candidates, including Muhammadu Buhari, amid significant regional and religious tensions.
-
C.
Second Republic of Nigeria
The Second Republic of Nigeria was the period of civilian democratic rule from 1979 to 1983, marked by a presidential system modeled on that of the United States and ended by a military coup.
-
D.
Fourth Republic of Nigeria
The Fourth Republic of Nigeria is the current democratic era of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, beginning in 1999 after military rule and characterized by a presidential system and multi-party elections.
-
E.
1989 Ugandan National Resistance Council election
The 1989 Ugandan National Resistance Council election was a pivotal legislative election that helped consolidate Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Movement government following its rise to power after years of conflict.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | presidential election ⓘ |
| broughtToPower | Shehu Shagari ⓘ |
| category |
1979 elections in Africa
ⓘ
Elections in Nigeria ⓘ History of Nigeria (1975–1999) ⓘ |
| constitutionalRequirement |
candidate must win at least one-quarter of votes in at least two-thirds of Nigerian states
ⓘ
candidate must win plurality of votes nationwide ⓘ |
| controversy | interpretation of two-thirds of states requirement ⓘ |
| country | Nigeria ⓘ |
| date | 1979-08-11 ⓘ |
| electedOffice | President of Nigeria ⓘ |
| electedPerson | Shehu Shagari ⓘ |
| electedPersonParty | National Party of Nigeria ⓘ |
| electoralSystem | two-round system with special spread requirement ⓘ |
| followedBy | 1983 Nigerian presidential election ⓘ |
| follows | period of military rule in Nigeria ⓘ |
| historicalEra | post-colonial Nigeria ⓘ |
| languageContext | English ⓘ |
| legalChallenge | Awolowo v. Shagari ⓘ |
| legalChallengeOutcome | Supreme Court of Nigeria upheld Shagari’s election ⓘ |
| location |
Federal Republic of Nigeria
ⓘ
linked to:
Nigeria
|
| mainOpponent | Obafemi Awolowo ⓘ |
| mainOpponentParty | Unity Party of Nigeria ⓘ |
| marksBeginningOf |
First Shagari administration
ⓘ
Second Republic civilian rule in Nigeria ⓘ
linked to:
Second Republic of Nigeria
|
| notableFeature | first time Nigeria elected an executive president by popular vote ⓘ |
| officeTermStart | 1979-10-01 ⓘ |
| otherMajorCandidate |
Aminu Kano
ⓘ
Nnamdi Azikiwe ⓘ Waziri Ibrahim ⓘ |
| otherMajorCandidateParty |
Great Nigeria People’s Party
ⓘ
linked to:
Great Nigeria People's Party
Nigerian Peoples Party ⓘ People’s Redemption Party ⓘ
linked to:
People's Redemption Party
|
| partOf |
Nigerian Second Republic
ⓘ
linked to:
Second Republic of Nigeria
|
| politicalTransition | from military to civilian rule ⓘ |
| precededBy | 1979 Nigerian parliamentary elections ⓘ |
| replacedSystem | military government of Olusegun Obasanjo ⓘ |
| resultingPresident | Shehu Shagari ⓘ |
| resultingTitleForWinner | Executive President of Nigeria ⓘ |
| significance |
ended military rule in Nigeria
ⓘ
inaugurated Nigeria’s Second Republic ⓘ |
| supervisedBy |
Federal Electoral Commission of Nigeria
ⓘ
linked to:
National Electoral Commission of Nigeria
|
| typeOfGovernmentFormed | presidential system ⓘ |
| votingEligibility | adult Nigerian citizens ⓘ |
| winner | Shehu Shagari ⓘ |
| winnerParty | National Party of Nigeria ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: 1979 Nigerian presidential election Description of subject: The 1979 Nigerian presidential election was the landmark vote that ended military rule and brought Alhaji Shehu Shagari to power as the first executive president of Nigeria’s Second Republic.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: 1979 Nigerian presidential election
linked to: 1979 Nigerian presidential election
linked to: 1979 Nigerian presidential election
linked to: 1979 Nigerian presidential election