The Nigerian military
Subtitle: origins, politics and captial accumulation
By: Ibrahim Braji
Edition: Revised edition
Publisher: University Press PLC
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Ibadan, Nigeria
Language: eng
Number of pages: 222
ISBN-13: 9789780699628
Copyright date: 2010
Subjects: Military History; Armed Forces; History; Political aspects
Description: "This study shows that the Nigerian armed forces have, since their colonial origins, never been apolitical. On the contrary, they are ready to perform, and have been performing, the singular function of sustaining the exploitative capitalist economic system on behalf of the dominant class (either foreign or domestic), which they themselves are part and parcel of. Because of the position they occupy in the class relations as a coercive instrument of the state, the armed forces as a whole indubitably form part of the dominant class. Furthermore, whenever they intervene in the political process, they get elevated from the role of junior partners in the ruling coalition government to the 'core group of the ruling class'."--Publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Part one: Preliminary remarks. The historical origins of the Nigerian armed forces ; The training and indoctrination of the military; title: Part two: The military in politics: from intervention to disengagement. Military interventions in Nigerian politics ; Military disengagement from politics; title: Part three: The military in government: class struggle and the development of capitalism in Nigeria. The military, the state and capital accumulation ; The structural adjustment programme, inter- and intra- class conflicts and contradictions ; The military before and after retirement.