ABSTRACT
Never had African governments seemed collectively so beleaguered as in 1984, Against a backdrop of economic deterioration so severe as to exact a heavy political toll, developments in Africa during 1984 highlighted the degree to which certain commonly accepted Western notions of security—individual, national, and international—are being questioned in much of the continent. The year 1984 was one in which normally reticent senior officials of the World Bank chose to discuss publicly their concern about the political ramifications of Africa's economic crisis. The new military government, led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari, is composed of senior officers considered to be conservative politically and associated almost exclusively with the northern, Muslim political circles of Nigeria. In the economic area, the new regime established the Comite Militaire pour le Renouveau National in a gradual attempt to dismantle the more repressive and inefficient elements of the existing highly centralized, Socialist-inspired system.
