A military coup is the violent or non-violent overthrow of an existing political regime. There have been ten such events in Nigeria since 1966. Between then and 1999 the army held power almost uninterrupted, apart from a short-lived return to democracy between 1979-1983. “Military coups and military rule (which began as an emergency aberration) became a seemingly permanent feature of Nigerian politics.[1]
There was a recurring pattern of coup and counter-coup, that were a succession of increasingly authoritarian and corrupt governments all full of false promises of democracy and new starts. ‘Decalo lists the following reasons for African military coups: ethnic rivalries, intramilitary quarrels, personal jealousies and ambitions and personal fear’.[2]
The first coup in 1966 was a result of the deteriorating situation in western Nigeria where politicians had failed to find a solution, ‘political killings had risen to a dangerous level’ and the whole country was heading towards chaos and disaster.[3] The coup leaders were primarily Igbo Majors including Major Ifeajuno, who were backed by a combination of officers and junior officers. They killed Prime Minister Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa a northern Nigerian as well as other high-ranking northerners, no Igbos were killed.[4] The coups in 1966 and 1972 were both examples of ‘intra-military quarrels’ and personal jealousies, with Colonel Kotoka overthrowing Kwame Nkrumah’s regime in order to further his own career which he saw as stagnating, whereas those in 1976 and 1990 were a continuation of the recurring problem of ‘ethnic rivalries’ that have plagued Nigeria’s post-independence history.[5]
The regional rivalries which have played such a large part in recurrence of coups were a result of colonialism creating an artificial state encompassing several different distinct ethnic groups. These distinct ethnic groups were represented by regional parties, which ensured that “none of the parties could govern Nigeria on its own, and… that conflict was only a matter of time away.” [6] Therefore there was no centralised opposition to military rule; when a coup occurred, it was therefore just another faction of military rule.
However, one exception to this recurring pattern of factions was the Ogoni people (Mosop), who managed to articulate their grievances into the Ogoni ‘Bill of Rights’ in October 1990. They worked closely with the campaign for democracy as well as attracting the attention of the UN and the support of international NGOs to protest against the Abacha regime. Despite these unified efforts, the military reacted with forceful violence, terrorising villages and holding a corrupt trial with no right of appeal; this resulted in the hanging of 9 activists in 1994.[7] This demonstrates that even when unified support did challenge military rule, the military had the totalitarian power to suppress this opposition.
The economic effects of military rule were disastrous. The traditional agricultural based economy was abandoned and they became extremely dependent on exports of oil which due to frequent fluctuations in oil prices led to an unstable economy.[8] The Babangida regime of was characterised by “gross incompetence and unbridled, waste and mismanagement, the privatisation of public office and public resources, the neglect of non-oil sectors and misplaced priorities”.[9] Essentially the focus was on the private sector as opposed to the good of the nation. As a result of the military economic policy of the 1980s, 45% of foreign-exchange earnings were going into debt servicing and there was very little growth. This led to a rise in poverty, crime, child abuse, disease, institutional decay and urban dislocation.[10] The instability and dissatisfaction caused by these policies was one of the causes of the consistent pattern of coups. Nigeria today is seemingly democratic with there having been no military coups since 1999, however the decades under military rule have had a resounding impact on the nation with all today’s 36 states created by the military and there still being a considerable military influence evident.[11]
O. Ihonvbere, Julias, ‘Are Thing’s Falling Apart? The Military and the Crisis of Democratisation in Nigeria’ in The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 34, No. 2, (1996)
Onwumechili, Chuka, African Democratization and military coups (Westport: Praeger, 1998)
Siollun,Max, Oil, Politics and Violence: Nigeria’s Military Coup Culture (1966–1976), (New York: Algora Publishing, 2009)