Causes of military Intervention and Prevention in Nigeria Nigeria gained independence from Britain on October 1/1960 and was declared a republic on first (1st) October 1963, and inherited the constitution and west parliamentary system of government from the British colonialist, with ceremonial president in the person of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, (from the NCNC) and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was made the prime minister from the NPC political party from October 1, 1963 to January 16th 1966. During the first republic Nigeria was split into three geopolitical regions, which are the western region, eastern region, and Northern region, the political parties operated on the identities of each region, and the NPC party was the Northern people’s party which represented the interest of Hausa/ Fulani who were predominantly in the Northern region. This brought about the ethnic and religious tensions over economic and educational development between the western and the northern regions. The AG was maneuvered out of control of the Western Region by the Federal Government and a new pro-government Yoruba party, the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), took over. And letter imprisoned the opposition leader of AG chief Obafemi Awolowo.( Nnoli 1996). According to Ezenwa (1987) one of the political events of the first republic was the military intervention, takeover into political affairs and civil war in the country within the period of 1966 and 1979. National rivalries and ethnic sentiments reflected in the national politics led to a military intervention in January 1966. Tafawa Balewa’s government was overthrown by junior army officers notably Igbo’s. Mostly the northern and western prominent personnel’s such as Sir Ahmadu Bello who was the Prime Minister of the Northern Region, Chief Akintola, the Prime Minister of the Western Region and Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, the federal finance minister were killed in the coup d’état. And this prompted the massacres of the Igbo’s living in the Northern Nigeria. This paper tends to explain what military is, what military intervention is all about and how Nigeria as a political entity can prevents future military interventions in her political system.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 23:27:51 +0000
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