George Klay Kieh

From Politics Back to the Barracks in Nigeria: A Theoretical Exploration

The article probes the issue of the militarys disengagement from Nigerian politics, and the prospects for a third democratic experience as of June 1993. The central thesis is that the military engagement-disengagement nexus is deeply rooted in the crisis of social justice in Nigeria. The military has intervened and disengaged from Nigerian politics in the past because of the inability of Nigerias peripheral capitalist system to meet the needs and aspirations of the Nigerian masses. The problems which are embedded in the peripheral capitalist system have prompted the military to intervene in the political arena, but its inability to solve these problems has then forced it to withdraw. Specifically, in the context of the current disengagement process, we argue that the process is doomed to fail: the military will re-intervene in Nigerias politics after a civilian government is elected in 1993. This is explained by the fact that during the current period of disengagement the fundamental issues of socio-economic justice have not been addressed. The problem of political instability in Nigeria remains unsolved. We conclude that to achieve political stability in Nigeria it will be necessary to solve certain problems which are rooted in Nigerias peripheral capitalist system - poverty, malnourishment, and disparities in income and wealth among others. In short, even if the new civilian government in 1993 is run by people of integrity, the problem of political instability will not be solved until the question of social justice is addressed and resolved.

Introduction: Democratizing States and State Reconstitution in Africa

In both scholarly works and in the popular press, much has been written on the failure of the state in Africa. Incessant political instability, high crime rates, lack of access to education and healthcare, deteriorating public infrastructure, and environmental degradation are a few of the features that have come to characterize the modern African state. Scholars and lay people use these as concrete indicators of the failure of the African state to perform its fundamental duties as a modern state. The catalogue of failure is quite depressing. As the New African Initiative notes, 340 million Africans, or half the population lives on less than US

State Renewal in Africa: The Lessons

1 per day. The mortality rate of children under five years of age is 140 per 1000, and life expectancy at birth is only 54 years. Only 58 percent of the population has access to safe water. The rate of illiteracy for people over 15 is 41 percent. There are only 18 mainline telephones per 1000 people in Africa, compared with 145 for the world as a whole and 567 for high income countries.1

Beyond state failure and collapse : making the state relevant in Africa

The various case studies in this volume on democratizing states in Africa have mapped out the travails of the difficult task of reconstituting the postcolonial state. Each of the case studies discusses the major shortcomings of the particular postcolonial state, and the efforts by each of the countries to address these challenges through the state reconstitution project. Clearly, the countries examined in this volume have made laudable strides in addressing the plethora of cultural, economic, political, and social problems that have hamstrung the reconstitution of the postcolonial state. While they have made important strides in addressing their horrendous past records, they still have a long way to go. As crucial as the reforms undertaken in the past few years have been, they have fallen far short of meeting the expectations of the vast majority of the African people. As Adebayo Olukoshi aptly observes, “Of course, the reform process is itself incomplete in many respects, and there are still many important missing links that need to be in place.…”1 In other words, irrespective of the level of progress made, all of the democratizing states addressed in this volume continue to face the enduring conundrum of reconstituting polities based on democratic processes.