Table Of ContentCRIPPLED
GIANT
Eghosa E. Osagh ae
CRIPPLED GIANT: NIGERIA
SINCE INDEPENDENCE
To the two teachers who moulded me:
my father
CHRISTOPHER OSAGIEDE OSAGHAE
who found fulfilment in being a teacher
and
MISTER OLOYEDE
the teacher God sent to raise me
EGHOSA E. OSAGHAE
Crippled Giant
Nigeria since Independence
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
BLOOMINGTON AND INDIANAPOLIS
First published in North America in 1998 by
Indiana University Press
601 North Morton Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47404
Copyright © 1998 by Eghosa E. Osaghae
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by
any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution
on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
Manufactured in India
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Osaghae, Eghosa E.
Crippled Giant: Nigeria since independence / Eghosa E.
Osaghae.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-253-33410-1. —ISBN 0-253-21197-2 (pbk.)
1. Nigeria—Politics and government—1960- I. Tide.
DT515.8.075 1998
966.905—dc21 97-32892
1 2 3 4 5 03 02 01 00 99 98
CONTENTS
Preface page ix
Abbreviations xii
Political Milestones in Nigeria, I960-1996 xvii
Maps xxi-xxvi
Chapters
1. HISTORICAL AND ANALYTICAL OVERVIEW 1
Historical overview 1
The bases of Nigerian politics 12
The consequences of Nigeria’s location in the global
system 28
2. THE FIRST REPUBLIC, 1960-1966 31
Background 32
The 1959 elections 32
The structural framework 34
Political developments and build-up to the collapse
of the Republic 38
The Action Group crisis and its aftermath 39
The census crisis 41
The 1964 elections 42
The economy 47
Foreign policy 50
3. THE FIRST PHASE OF MILITARY RULE,
1966-1979 54
The character and context of military intervention
and rule 54
The Ironsi regime 56
The Gowon regime 61
The civil war 65
Post-war developments 68
v
Contents
The transition that never was 69
A balance sheet on Gowon’s regime 77
The Mohammed/Obasanjo regime 79
The assassination of General Mohammed 88
Return to transition 90
The economy in the first phase of military rule 96
Foreign policy 104
THE SECOND REPUBLIC, 1979-1983 110
Conceptual notes and background 110
The contextual framework 113
Executive presidentialism 113
Constitutional recognition of political parties 114
The federal character principle 115
Entrenchment of corrective principles 116
Structural changes 117
The major actors: political parties 118
GNPP/NPP 119
NPN 119
PRP 120
UPN 121
NAP 122
The 1979 elections 125
Developments in the inter-election years 130
Religious and political conflicts; authoritarian
tendencies 130
Inter-governmental relations (IGR) 133
Developments in the states 138
Inter- and intra-party factionalism 139
The 1983 elections 144
Collapse of the Republic 154
The economy 155
Foreign policy 160
THE RETURN OF THE MILITARY: THE BUHARI
REGIME, 1983-1985 163
The coup of 31 December 1983 165
‘Pulling the country out of the economic mess’ 170
Salvaging from the ruins of the Second Republic 171
Contents vii
An ‘enabling environment* for economic recovery 178
The external dimensions of the recovery efforts 183
A balance sheet 185
Foreign policy 186
6. THE BABANGIDA YEARS AND AFTER,
1985-1993 188
The ‘redeemer’ cometh? 189
Structural adjustment 196
The labyrinth of a political transition 207
Who was qualified to be a politician? 214
The ‘test-tube* parties 216
An endless transition? 223
Back to the transition: the remainder 225
A new constitution 225
Structural reforms 221
Census 231
Elections 233
The stirring of civil society and political conflicts 242
State-directed conflicts 243
Inter-group conflicts 249
12 June and its aftermath 251
Why was the election annulled? 252
Aftermath of the annulment 256
The interim national government 261
The international context 266
Foreign policy 267
7. THE ABACHA REGIME, 1993-1996 273
The nature of Abacha’s intervention and rule 273
Continued economic decline 281
A reluctant democratic transition? 286
Civil society eruption: Nigeria on the march again! 294
Foreign policy 306
8. Conclusion 311
References 319
Index 335
TABLES
1.1. Contribution of oil to Federal Government revenue,
1958-90 20
2.1. Regional distribution of seats won by major parties in
the 1959 elections 33
2.2. Census figures, 1962 and 1963 41
2.3. Seats won by parties in the 1964/65 elections 45
3.1. 1973 census provisional returns compared with 1963
returns 75
3.2. Timetable for transition to civilian rule, 1975-79 84
3.3. The 1976 states creation exercise 85
4.1. 1979 National Assembly elections 124
4.2. 1979 state elections 124
4.3. 1979 presidential election 125
4.4. 1983 National Assembly elections 147
4.5. 1983 state gubernatorial elections 147
4.6. 1983 presidential election 148
6.1. Timetable for transition to civilian rule, 1987-93 212
6.2. 1991 creation of states 229
6.3. 1991 census provisional figures 232
6.4. 1992 state elections 234
6.5. 1992 National Assembly elections 235
6.6. 1993 presidential election 240
7.1. Timetable for transition to civilian rule, 1995-98 290
7.2. Political associations which applied for registration in 1996 293
7.3. 1996: thirty-six states 295
viii
PREFACE
Following the killings of the Ogoni minority activists on 10 November
1995, world attention focused on Nigeria as it had not done since
the country’s civil war. Underlying the condemnations that greeted
the killings was a range of pertinent questions which observers and
scholars of the Nigerian political scene had continuously asked over
the years: what exactly is the trouble with Nigeria? Why did a country
once regarded as the giant and hope of Africa because of its immense
human and material resources founder so badly? How did a country
which many called an exception to the tragedy that had befallen
post-colonial states in Africa become like ‘any other African country?’
With the killings, these questions became more pertinent. Many com
mentators and scholars then began to refer to the country’s descent
into decline. A few less optimistic ones talked of the final eclipse
of the troubled state.
What is really the trouble with Nigeria? It is arguably one of
the most complex countries in the world and belongs to the genre
of the most troubled complex societies called deeply divided societies.
Could this be the problem? Others talk of the pervasive corruption
and gross mismanagement that made a country which was on a
par with Malaysia and Indonesia in 1960 one of the world’s poorest
fifteen countries in 1995, according to World Bank Statistics. Could
this be the problem? Still others consider Nigeria’s inability to determine
its fate in the global system and its susceptibility to the crisis of
extraversion (i.e. crisis which follows from external forces outside
the control of the state) which reduce even the most stable and
seemingly wealthy rentier state (i.e. a state which derives its revenue
from taxes or rents on production of minerals by multinational cor
porations rather than from productive activity) to impotent anger,
a major factor. Could this be the problem?
Obviously each one of these viewpoints, which together approximate
a rough summary of the efforts of scholars to explain the trouble
with Nigeria, has validity. Yet they need to be proved, and it is
dangerous to accept them at face value. The present book is an
attempt to address the sort of questions presented above within these
perspectives. It has the advantage of tracing Nigeria’s history from
the present, meaning that its major objective is to analyse why the
country has found itself in the present predicament or what Joseph
IX
