The Military and the Nigerian State, 1966-1993

Adegboyega Isaac Ajayi's book discusses the strategies used by the military in Nigeria to hold on to power between 1966 (when a group of military officers seized power from the politicians) and 1993 (when General Ibrahim Babangida was ousted and the most peaceful election conducted in the history of the country was cancelled). This book marks a departure from the works of well-known students of civil–military relations such as Bayo Adekanye. Instead of discussing the numerous clampdowns on opposition or dwelling on the over-examined discussion of how the military, through their national and international collaborators, stole the resources of the country, Ajayi turns to the numerous structures and strategies the military employed in order to remain in power and to present itself as a legitimate form of government – indeed, as the best form for the people as a whole. Ajayi distinguishes between overt and covert strategies. The former involved the use and establishment of several military intelligence outfits, and the promulgation and amendment of legal decrees that were needed to position the military to achieve its goal of remaining in power even as times and circumstances changed. These decrees entailed the establishment and restructuring of educational institutions, which were needed to equip the military with the tools for dealing with civil society in a political framework. The best-known of these institutions include: the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, the Nigerian Defence Academy, the Nigerian Military School and the Nigerian War College. The curricula of all these institutions went through a series of modifications during the period in question. The Nigeria Defence Academy, for instance, was upgraded to university status, while the curricula of the others were fashioned to educate military personnel in areas outside their conventional training.

Civil–military relations · Covert · Military government · Opposition (politics) · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Promulgation · Restructuring · Sociology · State (computer science) · Strategic studies · Global Political and Social Dynamics · Law · Public Administration