From Military Rule to Civil Rule: A Political Economy of Gerontocratic Metamorphosis in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper investigates a recurring factor of military dominance in Nigeria politics. It explores the role of the military in Nigeria which captures the safeguarding of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of state. It goes beyond to probe into the nature of leadership Nigeria has been subjected to since the intervention of military in the politics of the state. This kind of leadership is one where after a protracted domination of the polity through forceful emergence; stages a comeback in a civilian form seeking to recapture power in a most bizarre manner with its attendant militocracy. It is against that backdrop that the study employs class theory as its framework to capture the formative influence that provoked the spirit of metamorphosis from military to civilian. This finds expression in their kleptocratic appetite to suffocate the economic endowments of the state. It therefore, discovers that as a result of their involvement in politics couple with military orientation that has not been diluted in any form, it has continued to heat up the polity and elicits unending desire to reverse the state to the stone-age where the employment of force betrays democratic values. It thus, calls on all sectors of the state to rise in defence of democracy and the promotion of good governance in Nigeria.

Keywords: Military Rule, Militocracy, Psycho-logicism, Leadership, Gerontocracy.