Military in politics and governance
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Date
2021
Authors
Eshiet I.
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Publisher
University of Lagos Press and Bookshop Ltd.
Abstract
Nation building in Africa has remained a daunting challenge over the years, and the military institution has been an active part in nation building, although it has no constitutional role to do so. This chapter examines military involvement in politics and governance and its impact on nation building in Africa, using secondary sources. Specifically, the chapter assesses the military professional organization and its constitutional role in the state. It examines the reasons why African armies meddle into politics, a domain that is outside their constitutional role. It also assesses the performance of the military while in governance. Finding reveals a myriad of factors that have made the political terrain attractive to the military, such as civilian misrule. It also shows that years of military rule did not usher in the desired nation building. This led to a clamour for the return to civil rule from the 1990s. Today, the majority of African states operate civil regimes and military takeovers have become unfashionable therefore, raising a fundamental issue ‘if there is a future for military rule in Africa.’ Inferences from present socio-economic and political realities in the continent reveal the imminence of military coups. The chapter therefore concludes that military rule may remain a permanent feature in Africa’s political landscape if civil mis-governance continues as usual. This however, poses a challenge to nation building as military rule is antithetical to nation building.
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Scholarly article
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Citation
Eshiet, I. (2021). The Military in Politics and Governance in Africa. In O. Iwuagwu (ed). Nation Building in Africa: Issues, Challenges and Emerging Trends. Lagos: University of Lagos Press and Bookshop Ltd. Pp 77- 98.