General Ibrahim Babangida became head of state after a coup on 27 August 1985, replacing General Muhammadu Buhari.
In August 1991 he created eleven more states.
He arranged for elections for states governors in 1991, with the military governors handing over to elected civilian governors in January 1992 at the start of the Nigerian Third Republic.
The list below gives governors of the states that were in existence when Babangida took power.
[1] The newly created states in August 1991 were run by administrators rather than governors, a term used to reinforce the message that their tenure was interim until elected governors could take over.