ABSTRACT
Governments drawn from the military enjoy a particular advantage over many of their elected counterparts: they can impose change by fiat. The most dramatic post-independence changes in Nigerian politics have occurred under military auspices. Ironsi and other members of the Federal Military Government "set out to build an image as a reforming government." The demands of the civil war had understandably overridden any thoughts Gowon and the Supreme Military Council may have entertained in 1966— 67 about a speedy return to the barracks. The army served limited domestic functions, primarily as adjuncts to police forces. Officers attempted to recreate the political neutrality of the military as a whole, though both the armed forces and the country as a whole had changed dramatically. The approach used in Ghana, or emphasizing obedience to the dominant political party and its head, could not have worked in Nigeria, for a simple reason: Nigeria lacked comparable nationalist unity.
