Soldiers and Oil: The Political Transformation of Nigeria

Soldiers and Oil (1978) examines Nigeria under military rule from 1966 to 1978, a period of political change as well as economic – the period also saw a twenty-fold increase in Nigerian oil revenues. The oil industry became by far the greatest single source of public revenue, and the distribution of oil wealth by the central federal government fundamentally changed the economics of the federated states, created by the military government , whose financial autonomy had been so jealously guarded.