 Great to have you back here on the breakfast on Plus TV Africa. It's time for Today in History and I'm going back to the year 1974. Once again going to be sharing with you things that have to do with African politics and some very very embarrassing moments. On this day in 1974 there was a military coup in Niger Republic and President Diori Hamani was deposed. A man called Seini Kulche was a Nigerian military officer who led the 1974 coup d'etat that deposed the government of Niger's first President, Hamani Diori. He ruled the country as military head of state from 1974 to 1987. Star general Seini Kulche, which of course Niger's national stadium in Niamhe, is named after him. After of course his coup. Kulche's first official acts were to suspend the constitution, dissolve the national assembly, ban all political parties and release political prisoners. The Supreme Military Council was established on the 17th of April also in 1974 with Kulche as president. It stated the mandate or rather its mandate back then was to distribute food aid fairly and to restore morality to public life. The military government's major preoccupation was planning an economic recovery. Plots to remove him even after he had come in through a coup were twarted in 1975 and again in 1976. In 81 he began to increase civilian representation in the military council, the Supreme Military Council and in 82 preparations were undertaken for a constitutional form of government. 85 following an armed incident near the Niger Libyan border or non Nigerian Tuaregs were expelled from the country and of course later on his health deteriorated in late 86 and continued to worsen in 87. He eventually died in November 1987 in a hospital in France. That's the story of 1974 to 1987, a person who stepped into the leadership of the Niger Republic through a coup and eventually held on to power, tried to put his own policies, set up a Supreme Military Council, tried to make his own changes in government. Most times in Africa when there is a coup of any sort they always blame failure of the economy, they blame misrule and high-handedness of the government on whatever excuse that there is. Between 88, can't remember now anyway. There were two several years in his rule when he also survived coup attempts. New people also tried to overthrow his government but unfortunately for him he survived all those attempts and stayed on to 87 when he died and I'm guessing you know and I'm sure that I'm not going to be wrong that if he didn't have health challenges in 87 and eventually pass on he probably would have held on to power for a lot longer. So you got a crystal ball or something? I mean yes my crystal ball really shows me what African leadership is like you know in places where there is not you know a strong democracy and strong systems. Africa has had its share of coups and it's still happening. Yeah still yes of course still happening sadly. Oh time to move on right so I'm doing an about turn as usual and we're going you know outside Africa. So the strange we're going to talk about the strange legacy of Tupac's hologram which lives on five years after his historic Coachella debut. 2012 hologram of a late rapper Tupac features on stage with Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre at the music festival. So with just four days until the start of the 2012 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival there was no room for any more mistakes and hip-hop rapper Dr. Dre Young had a specific vision for his headlining performance with Snoop Dogg. On the 15th of April 2012 Dr. Dre and Snoop's set a shut-less figure emerged without thug life tattoo on his stomach, pinkerings on his hands, pants sagging and timberlands on his feet. It almost looked real. So it was the perfect surprise for the final act of the night on the main stage and Tupac's fans of course had a fit. Well Dr. Dre and Snoop having already floated through nearly 20 tracks so no moment would compare to what came next. So a computer generator Tupac made this proclamation to the crowd of 80,000. On this night the Tupac hologram what many still call the virtual being was born. The whole of music artist died at the age of 25 three years before Coachella debuted in 1999 but Tupac made it to that stage because Dr. Dre made sure of it. Do you think this is one of the reasons why Tupac's fans still believe he's alive and hiding somewhere? So I don't think it's one of the reasons but I think it's also it's one of the ways that they try to keep him you know alive and keep him alive basically yes you know and keep him you know in the very precious memories of his fans across the world. The conspiracy theories of him being alive some place you know hiding somewhere in Cuba or somewhere I don't know where it was. Those ones they tried to push that for a bit but obviously that didn't work because he died in 1996 it's 2021 if you're still alive come out already. Because why are you hiding? Is he scared of being killed again? So obviously you know those you know stories are false but it was a way that they tried to use technology to bring him back you know we've seen these things in movies we've seen them you know in documentaries and the lights so they tried to use some level of you know some technology which was of course the hologram it's about yeah light interference and all of that yes you know and it was it was spoken about a lot you know when this happened and you know there's people who also criticized it you know and said you know there's really no need if a person is gone let him go you know but there's those who also you know thought to themselves man if they don't give anything you know to get a you know as close as possible a picture or video or some you know live as you know feet of two pack again and so they did enjoy that because it's a good thing right it's it yeah I think it's a good thing it does bring back you know help you relieve some memories it does also you know help you reconnect with the person that you may have lost in a long time ago a lot of people I believe would want to have holograms of their loved ones every now and then do you have certain conversations to listen to some things that they said in the past I mean just to build that connection some people want it some people don't yeah so I don't think I want it all right today in history is all we have for you uh 2012 and the year 1974 in Niger Republic uh we're going to go on a show break when we come back we're moving into our first major conversation for today how does it feel to work for 20 straight months without pay in two successive governments one government owed you salaries for nine months a new government came into power or came into office and has already found another 11 months how have the resident doctors in abia state been coping and that's what we're talking about right after the short break