Two Faces of Civil Society and the Military in Nigeria’s Democratisation

Abstract

Dominant views about politicized armies tend to portray the political actors in the military as bearers of the collective orientation of the entire institution towards democracy. Also civil society is mostly qualified as a democratising space. Nonetheless, these notions obscure the janiform potentials of political agencies in transitional states, where the military and civil society are neither exclusively authoritarian nor democratic. Essentially transition to democracy from military rule and post-authoritarian consolidation is a dialectical see-saw between genuine democratic interests in civil society and similar actors within military institutions on the one hand; and a bloc of undemocratic interests constituted by military actors and their allies in civil society on the other hand. Using Nigeria’s experience of transitions to civil rule and the post-military era, I argue that neither the military nor civil society fits the straitjacket of a mere harbinger or obstacle to democracy; as their historical roles complexly intersect both outcomes.

Keywords: Civil Society, Democratisation, Democratisers, De-democratisers, Two Faces