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Abstract

The paper examines the significance and need for a stable civil-military system in Nigeria as a Third World state, which would draw closest to the ideal objective control model of civil-military relations. An appraisal of trends which promise a bright prospect for such a system, as well as antithetical forces which appear to make such prospects gloomy, is undertaken. We conclude that a stable and workable civil-military system in Nigeria as an underdeveloped state cannot be examined in isolation from the prevailing political economy and material relations in society. The termination of political instability and of the vicious cycle of civil-military alternation will be attainable in Nigeria only when autochthonous economic development, technological revolution and egalitarian and socialised material relations are forged and sustained.

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The Significance and Prospects of Stable Civil-Military Relations in Nigeria

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