Question 8
Highlight five major factorwhich the military used as an excuse to topple democratically elected government in Nigeria after independence
Observation
This was a popular question. The performance of candidates that attempted the question was good as they understood the demands of the question and demonstrated good mastery of the subject. They performed credibly well and scored high marks. However, candidates are to provide the following points in order to score good marks.
- Officers’ personal interest
- Military organizational grievances
- Economic decline
- Domestic political crises
- Contagion from other regional coups/external influence
- Corruption in government
- Embezzlement and mismanagement/greedy and selfish leaders
- Constitutional crises
- Autocratic leadership style of the leaders
- Decline in democratic freedom of the people/electoral malpractices
- Tribal politics/nepotism and favouritism
- Persecution of opposition/suppression of political opponents
- Dominance of Regional political parties and their parochial interest
- Census crises
- Unemployment
- Shortage of essential commodities on the market/price hikes/economic hardship
- Ideological interest of foreign powers
- Political interference in the affairs of the military
- Absence of free and fair elections
- Mistrust and suspicion among the political class
- Inter and intra party disputes
- Internal insecurity/breakdown of law and order