What is it about?
This article is an in-depth analysis of civil-military relations in Nigeria's nascent democracy. It chronicles the factors responsible for the Nigerian army's descent into the abyss—once a professional body—shortly after political independence in 1960. The author argues that much still needs to be done to effectively tame the military, which has indeed become a monster. However, unless the “contradictory pressures of depolitization and renewed political involvement” are curtailed, the hope of a consolidated democracy in Nigeria, and in virtually all other states emerging from military absolutism, will remain a mirage after all, despite all pretensions to the contrary.
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This page is a summary of: Taming the Monster, Armed Forces & Society, January 2006, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0095327x05277905.
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