Buhari was overthrown and imprisoned for 40 months.
We would, though, caution demagogues against declaring themselves "President for Life", as they are invariably overthrown, usually in bloody circumstances, after a couple of gaudy decades.
See articleAt least ten people were killed in fighting in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, between members of the rebel group that took over the country five months ago and fighters loyal to its overthrown president, François Bozizé.
See articleA report by the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees found that 8,000 prisoners were still being held without trial in Libya for fighting for Muammar Qaddafi, the dictator who was overthrown two years ago.Charles Blé Goudé, a close ally of Côte d'Ivoire 's former president, Laurent Gbagbo, was accused of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
Mr Mobutu backed Rwanda's Hutu government, overthrown in 1994; he later helped Hutu militia in the refugee camps.
He in turn was overthrown after faring poorly in regional elections and in a national referendum.
Having overthrown Mr Thaksin in a coup and backed the toppling of elected pro-Thaksin governments through parliamentary and legal manoeuvres, the army will not cheer a Pheu Thai victory.
In 2000 Islamists formed the Union of Islamic Courts, a national federation of sharia jurists, that had at least some legitimacy and held large swathes of territory, until it was overthrown six years later with foreign help.The emergence of another national movement is still Somalia's best hope of escaping misery.
What is needed, according to an analysis by Freedom House of 67 overthrown dictatorships, is "broad-based, non-violent civic resistance which employs tactics such as boycotts, mass protests, blockades, strikes and civil disobedience to delegitimate authoritarian rulers and erode their sources of support, including the loyalty of armed defenders".
Pluto's reclassification is a very public demonstration of the way science works: when new evidence emerges that overturns what was previously accepted, the facts prevail, and the accepted theory is overthrown in favour of a new, more accurate understanding of the universe.
Mr Lacson denies these allegations, which were made by Colonel Corpus at a Senate committee hearing.Although Mr Lacson lost his job as chief of police when his patron, Joseph Estrada, was overthrown as president this year, he still enjoyed enough of a reputation as a good policeman to be elected to the Senate soon after.
