The 2 Million Man March was the culmination of efforts by the group

Youth Earnestly Ask for Abacha Youth Earnestly Ask for Abacha (YEAA) was a campaign formed in 1997 to urge General Sani Abacha to self succeed and run for Nigeria's presidency.(Youth Activism: An International Encyclopedia, Volume 2 PAGE 447) The YEAA campaign, led by Daniel Ka ...

under the direction of

Daniel Kanu Daniel Kanu may refer to: * Daniel Kanu (politician) (born 1971), Nigerian politician and entrepreneur * Daniel Kanu (footballer) (born 2004), Sierra Leonean footballer {{hndis, Kanu, Daniel ...

. The march took place in

Abuja Abuja () is the capital and eighth most populous city of Nigeria. Situated at the centre of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it is a planned city built mainly in the 1980s based on a master plan by International Plann ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

, during 3–4 March 1998. The support of the former military leader

Sani Abacha Sani Abacha (20 September 1943 – 8 June 1998) was a Nigerian military officer and politician who ruled as the military head of state of Nigeria from 1993 until his death in 1998. He seized power on 17 November 1993 in the last successful c ...

culminated in 1998 with what is now remembered as the two-million-man march, the largest gathering in history of Nigeria. It was coordinated by YEAA and NACYAN. Africa Research Bulletin reported that YEAA had distributed free exercise books to schools, that it had plans to distribute subsidized imported "Abacha Rice" and that it had bought two new buses, equipped with speakers and modern communications equipment in honor of the event (20 Mar. 1998 13002). Many prominent politicians and other famous Nigerians attended, supported, and spoke at the rally According to an interview with

the costs of the rally, estimated at 400-500 million Naira, were paid for by "patriotic individuals" (NTA TV 5 Mar. 1998; Voice of Nigeria 3 Mar. 1998) As alleged in the book Regime Change and Succession Politics in Africa: Five Decades of Misrule, the march was likely government-backed and nearly 2.5 billion Naira was spent on the march. (PG 115 Repressive State and Resurgent Media Under Nigeria’s Military Dictatorship)Omozuanvbo Ihonvbere, Julius
"Political Liberalization and Democratization in Africa"

Greenwood Publishing Group Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG), also known as ABC-Clio/Greenwood (stylized ABC-CLIO/Greenwood), is an educational and academic publisher (middle school through university level) which is today part of ABC-Clio. Established in 1967 as Gr ...

, 2003.

References

{{Reflist 1998 in Nigeria March 1998 events in Nigeria