Military rule has set Nigeria back 50 years in terms of development. The robust economy of Nigeria was progressively destroyed by the military. Whereas a few of the civilians of the independence era might have engaged in larceny in secret, the military regimes that succeeded them, one after the other, progressively turned the public till into personal pocket, dipping their hands with relish, since no one could question a man with a gun! The military juntas institutionalized corruption, which has permeated the entire fabric of the society. Military rule brought Nigeria to its knees economically, socially and politically.
Some years ago, I watched on the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) a former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Alfa Belgore, lament how militarism stifled Nigerian development. He recalled the many development agreements with the German government in critical sectors of the country’s economy in the early 60s, which had to be abandoned because of army rule.
