Military intervention and underdevelopment in africa: nigeria as a selected case

The regimented institution of the military is designed and established to be professionally well trained in the process of national defense and protection of the citizenry against external aggression and invasion. But this institution (the military) had for the past century been involved in political participation through an illegal and unconstitutional modus-operandi. This paper examines the historical background of military as an institution in Africa, revisiting the hitherto pre-colonial African militaristic structure. It also analyses the nature of colonial military institution as it was used to dominate the African continent and its structure after decolonization. The paper has adopted the secondary methodology to arrive at its findings. It discovered that, the military had grossly underdeveloped the continent after the withering of colonialism, as a result of corruption, favoritism, ethnicity and lack of proper bureaucratic principles. The paper concludes that, albeit the military is dictatorial in nature, but it has maintained law and order especially in Nigeria better than the so called democratic government (of President Jonathan). The paper recommends maximum restrain of the military vis a vis political power and stronger military-civilian relations as constitutionally defined, among other things.