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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Military presidency and the poverty of State building in Nigeria: a study of the Babangida years (1985-1993)
Authors:Amuwo, 'KunleISNI
Olaitan, 'Wale AreISNI
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.
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