MATTHEW HASSAN KUKAH Nigeria: Reversing the Tide of Decline T he prolonged crisis of legitimacy which brought about the collapse of Soviet Communism in 1989 provided the spark for the quest for what has now come to be known as a»new world order«. Popular thought has been that for this project to succeed, the new order must be anchored on liberal democracy. For us in Africa, the period has introduced new dynamics and challenges leading many students of the continent to believe that the struggle has begun, not for democracy per se but for Africa’s»second liberation«. Many believe that it is only the success of this second liberation that can truly guarantee a platform for lasting democracy, for rule of law, prosperity, development, freedom, justice and equality. Unfortunately in Africa democracy is still con­sidered to be just a means to an end to hunger, illiteracy and squalor. For Nigeria, democracy is now seen as the vehicle of development which is to pull the country out of the misery inflicted on it during more than two decades of semi-feudal, military and civilian dictatorships. Democracy is perceived as a means of establishing a just society. While globalization propels the ideals of the new world order, for Africa it is still vital to deal with the economic and political decay arising from years of slavery and colonialism. In his study of the crisis surrounding the African state, Basil Davidson, one of the foremost students of Africa, came to the sobering conclusion that colonial Africa had sowed the seeds that would make the project of statecraft in Africa a long, tiresome, oppressive, sisyphean exercise in frustration, thus leading him to refer to it as a curse. There are many who would argue today that the post-colonial project was bound to fail due to its inherent crisis of legitimacy and the internal contradictions which existed within the system inherited by the new African elite. The project of the state in Africa would be trailed by persistent problems of underdevelopment and stagnation. The Protracted Crisis of the Nigerian State With hindsight, it is clear that when the British conceded independence to Nigeria(October 1 , 1960 ), they merely decided to cut their losses and move on to consolidate their economic interests in the new Nigeria. There had been no serious program to industrialize and modernize the coun­try(as the logic of colonialism tended to dictate) and forty years after this so-called independence, most of the questions which surfaced before inde­pendence remain unanswered. Nigeria’s quest has seen the nation move from the West Minster Par­liamentary system, which was terminated with the first military coup of January 15 , 1966 , to the American presidential system and then to a pro­longed military interregnum. Of the forty years of our national independence, thirty were under mili­tary rule! Barely five years after Nigeria’s independence, the first military coup took place on January 15 , 1966 . Ostensibly, the intervention was welcome because, on the whole, Nigerians had come to the conclusion that the civilian regime would not suc­ceed in extricating itself from the contradictions and limitations of their class and ethnic and regio­nal antecedents. In 1963 , Federal elections had been characterized by political violence and ethnic identities had become weapons of war. Corruption had become endemic so that when the leader of the coup(later known as the»The Coup of the Young Majors«) told Nigerians that he wanted to rescue them from a thieving elite, he struck a patriotic chord. Although the young men failed in their bid, military rule was established when superior military officers took over the reins of government. However, the fact that the new go­vernment was overthrown via another military coup on July 29 indicated that military rule would turn out to be a cure that was worse than the disease. The first military government threw itself IPG 1/2000 Kukah, Nigeria: Reversing the Tide of Decline 19