ABSTRACT
The coming to power of the military in 1966 increased the power of senior federal civil servants. With military cover and protection, they assumed political as well as administrative control of the civil service. During and after the civil war, they played an important role in initiating and implementing state policy. With the successful prosecution of the war and a stronger nationalism borne out of that experience, there were hopes that federal leadership with centralised policy-making would be carried over into peacetime. In the early 1970s, both Bendel and Rivers states, as oil producers, gained handsomely from the operation of the derivation principle that was applied from 1971 to 45 percent of onshore oil rents and royalties. After the war, emergency regulations-including a ban on strikes-remained in force. This did not prevent widespread industrial unrest, which peaked in the aftermath of the increases awarded by the Adebo Commission.
