Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Military presidency and the poverty of State building in Nigeria: a study of the Babangida years (1985-1993) |
Authors: | Amuwo, 'Kunle Olaitan, 'Wale Are |
Year: | 1994 |
Periodical: | African Notes: Bulletin of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan |
Volume: | 18 |
Issue: | 1-2 |
Pages: | 51-72 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Nigeria |
Subjects: | political systems military regimes |
Abstract: | Nigeria is no more than a nominal State in search of normative and institutional justification. Nigerian political history is characterized by the persistent search for real statehood through a unifying State institution. When the new government under General Ibrahim Babangida came to power in 1985, it recognized that the Nigerian State lacked a unifying institutional appeal. Hence the expectation that it would conduct its affairs through consultation and open debate. However, while the transition to civil rule programme purported to institutionalize a liberal State system, it was in fact no more than populist posturing. In reality, a personalist model of governance was constructed in which hitherto diffuse powers were concentrated at the centre under a military presidency. Nigeria's present personalized leadership is a regressive situation, reflecting the primitive accumulation of power by one man rather than a genuine process of State-building. Notes, ref. |