AN ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL MILITARY RELATIONS IN NIGERIA AS AN EMERGING DEMOCRACY, 1999-2007

AN ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL MILITARY RELATIONS IN NIGERIA AS AN EMERGING DEMOCRACY, 1999-2007

Abstract:

Contemporary civil-military relations is mainly concerned with the civilian leadership’s control of the military in a democracy. As such, this study assessed the factors that shaped the relationship between the civilian leadership and the military establishment in Nigeria (1999-2007).This is because Nigeria’s path of political development and by extension its civil-military relations differs from what obtains in countries with well-established democratic traditions. The study adopted and modified Peter Feaver’s Agency theory of civil-military relations. The study assumed that the nature of the interactions between the civilian and military leaderships, the role of the civil society and the international environment were prominent in shaping Nigeria’s civil-military relations since the inception of the elected civilian government in May 1999. The factors identified include the expertise of the civilian leadership and the willingness of the military to accept directives from the civilian leadership, the constitutional and policy frameworks under which these civilian and military leaderships operated and the roles of civil society and international actors notably the advanced democracies. Employing the qualitative content analysis method in the collection and assessment of data, findings showed the following: the civilian leadership’s knowledge of military matters enhanced the capacity to control the Nigerian military; the role of the civil society as advocate of liberal democratic civil-military relations was very limited; the military’s acceptance to obey constituted authority was a determining factor in civilian control capacity and the role of the international community in terms of its expectations and aid in the area of security sector reform gave an impetus to the capacity for civilian control of the military.

AN ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL MILITARY RELATIONS IN NIGERIA AS AN EMERGING DEMOCRACY, 1999-2007