Taming the Tiger: Civil-Military Relations Reform and the Search for Political Stability in Nigeria

Taming the Tiger views Nigeria as a country on the verge of political, economic and social disintegration, the result of political instability. At the core of Nigeria's political instability is the Nigerian military, which ruled the country for nearly thirty of Nigeria's thirty-nine years of post-colonial history, including fifteen years of continuous and uninterrupted rule from 1984-1999. Author 'Emeka Nwagwu compares the Nigerian military to an untamed tiger marauding the jungles, preying on the other animals within its ecological system. This work is a clarion call for civil-military relations reform as a mechanism for arresting the drift toward political instability. According to Nwagwu, unless the military is "tamed," military officers will continue to be a force for instability that would ultimately lead to national disintegration.