Oil Boom1981· ₦82bn (plan)· Chapter I · Money
₦82 billion plan. Imports surge; external debt grows from near-zero (1975) to $19 billion by 1983.
The Fourth Plan (1981–85) was the most ambitious in Nigerian history at ₦82 billion (~$150bn at official rates). The Shagari administration's import liberalisation and the second oil glut (1981–82) tipped the country into the 1982 Economic Stabilisation Act and the 1986 SAP.
Figure · Budget breakdown
Fourth National Development Plan, 1981–85 — ₦82bn
Most ambitious envelope in Nigerian history at signature. Collapsed under the 1981–83 oil glut.
Total: 82 ₦bn. Source · Federal Ministry of National Planning (1981); Fourth Plan main document Vol. I.
What it cost — political & economic reality
Nigeria in 1981: who was in charge, the cabinet of the day, the GDP, and the crises that defined the period.
President · Second Republic
1979–1983· NPN
National reality
First executive presidency. Oil-price crash from 1981 destroyed the boom. Ghana Must Go expulsion of West African migrants (1983). Disputed re-election in 1983, then the Buhari/Idiagbon coup on 31 December 1983.
Crises of the period
GDP (World Bank)
$64 bn (1980, oil peak) → $30 bn (1983, bust)
Cabinet (selected portfolios)
Sunday Essang → Onaolapo Soleye
Sylvester Ugoh; later others (being compiled)
Sources · Federal Gazette 1979–83 · CBN Annual Reports
Tier 1 · primary
Courts. Gazettes. National archives.
Tier 2 · corroborating
OCCRP. HRW. BudgIT. TheCable.
Tier 4 · tertiary, flagged
Wikipedia only where primary is pending. Always labelled.