In 1975, about five years after the bloody Nigerian civil war, the military government of Murtala Mohammed and Olusegun Obasanjo began the process of dismantling parliamentary democracy, a British colonial legacy. The objective, according to the Daily Times of October 19, 1975, was to “discourage institutionalised opposition to the government in power and instead develop a consensus politics”.
Obviously, the military thought that a nation could have consensus without conflict or opposition. Political sociologist, Larry Diamond would later no
