The Military in Nigeria's Postcolonial Literature: An Overview

The paper is a survey of Nigeria's postcolonial literature with a view to highlighting how writers through diverse ideological persuasions and aesthetic modes have captured people's experience under military rule (from January 15, 1966 to May 29, 1999). The paper observes that the military is not only a dominant political force in the country's postcolonial governance but also a recurrent subject in irs narrative fiction. poetry and drama. In the works of Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Christopher Okigbo, John Pepper Clark, Ola Rcttimi, Femi Osofisan, Ken Sa ro -WI~ , Odia Ofeimun, Niyi Osundare, Ben Okri etc, one is confronted with ropes of power abuse, economic mismanagement and poverty among other legacies of military regimes. Their art also capture the twist in public perception of soldiers. Whereas, the soldiers were celebrated initially as messiahs who rescued the polity from cormpt politicians, they became vampires in the 1980s and 1990s aftsr ~lcnging the nation into political turmoil and economic tribulation. In its conclusion, the paper contends that Nigerian literature in post-military dispensation will continue to be topical and relevant. Indeed, it has a crucial role to play in the task of nation-building and democratic development necessitated by years of military (mis) rule.


Introduction
So repulsive is the sectarian and self-seeking politicking that passes for democracy in the universe of Chinua Achebe's A Man of the People. The author's contempt for the misdeeds dpoliticians in the first ~p u b k as depicted in the novel is uomistabble. Attempts by the h -n a n a t o r , Odili Samalu and other idealistic stalwarts of Common People's Convention toupset the decadent status quo through the ballot box are met with brutal suppression. The election marked as it were by fraud, violence, arson and looting, ends in Eivour of the Prime W s t e r -Chief Koko-and the great Honomble Minister -Chief Dr. M.A. Nan@. Amidrt despair already stirred in the people, Odili's supreme wish is for a "Voice of thunder" to blow up the mricious clan of politicians (Achebe, 1966: 2). The "tbundern e v e n w y comes at the end of the novel in the form of a military coup d'etat. The coup as several ai6cs have observed, provides a dues-ex-machine. a timely resolution to conflicts that "mingly.defy logical human resolution. ' The "fhunder' as a trope for change also features in Christopher Okigbo's Lobyrid?. SoldiEn' boomingguos have silenced the politicians' ecstatic d m of misrule and the poet declares 'Hunay for Thunder". "Hurray for Thundern is therefore, Okigbo's gleeful edebration of the arrival of the military in national politics follaYiog the collapse of the first drwcratic experiment in 1966. However. he wins the victorious hunters (soldiers) not to be carried away by the euphoria of their triumph so that they will not be smeared with the rot of their civilian predecessors: "If they share the meat let them remember the thunder" (1971: 67). The inability of the new men of power whom Okigbo calls "the New Stars of Irondawn'' to heed the lyrical premonitions of the poet led to civil war, prolonged military We and instability which Okigbo h a rightly described as "a going and coming that goes on forever ..." (1971 : 72).
Shortly after, it became increasingly clear tbat the military had no solution to the myriad ofpmblem that ii intervened to tackle such ar a parlous economy, decayed infraruucture, poverty, corruption, ethno-religious conflicts and nepotism among other ills. It is not surprking to perceive similar twist of hte in the discourse of postcolonial Nigerian literam Whether in verse. d r a m or narrative fiction. one deciphers the reversal of formne (in terms of public esteem) suffered by the military in real life. From the celebrative anlow of Achebe's A Man of the People and Ckigbo's "Hunay For Thunder", to the denunciatory cries of Wole Soyinka's Ihe Bearpcarion oflrea Bq, Ken Saro-Wlwa's A

Mon~h and a Day, Fcmi Osofisan's Aringindin and the Nig/ztwatchmen. Frank Uche
MOUab's Eoling y the Flesh and Akin AdesoLao's "Mr. Johnson F i d s Work" among 0 t h texts, quite evident is the uajectory of an institution that slips from approbation to declamation. Writers often draw attention with threnodic feelings, to shattered expectation ofdemocracy and hurmted aspkitions of natiomoai. As such. one is confronted with ~epbwmenal cascading of the erstwhile Saviours into the realm of Vampires, and whose total exit from power became mandatory if the c o u o q was to m&e progress.
It should be remarked that the dominance of the ~r a r y as subject in Nigeria's postcolonial literature does no: imply the absence of other engagements. Some writen have exploed the ccrcial issue of get~der in social formation. The contention is lbat colonialism meRlY exacerbated gender imbalmce in indigenous cultures as men were obviously ~rinleged in the operau0": the colonial machiiery Political independence had not tmhed off the splodge of patriarchy. ConsequenUy. male and female writen who are The Military in Nigeria's Postcolonia[ Literature sympathetic to women's putative a d r y use literature to re create a literary space where women are pushed to the centre of discourse. Hora Nwapa's Efim and Elechi m d i ' s The Concubine are nwels that depict traditional beliefr and practices that inhibit women empowerment. In plays like Clark's m e Wives' R m l t and Tess Omweme's 7Re Reign of Wmobia, women occupy the cenm of political powsr coniigurtion the periphery of which they have been operating from in pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial setting. The works show women of Erhuwaren and Ilaa respectively as valorous women who are ijrbued with an a m e s s of their sexuality and become outstanding by cballeoging the patriarchal st-s quo.
Besides, love features prominently in the writings of this era. In many instances. it has served as plane from where writers address other pressing issues like inter-group relationships in a highly sttaufied, multi-ellmic and multicultural sociery like Nigeria. Elechi Arnadi's Pepper soup, Femi Osofisan's Chaftering and the Song, and Zaynab Alkali's The Still Born are relevant examples. In another vein, the conuadiction, hypoclj' and abuse that have crept into the practice of religions in recent times have equally received the attention of writers. One of them is Sony Oti with his Evangelist Jeremiah.
It is interesting to note that since 1999, new writings have been pre occupied with a kind of post mortem. Writers have been casting a backward glance to fmd out how and why the nation squandered the proficr of independence so soon. They have also been engaging the challenges of state re-construction and the imperative of democratic development in the post millmy yeas. These are the common concerns of I.P. Clark in his play -A11 For Oil and Wole Soy.lnka in his new collection of poems -Sarnarkand and Other Markets I have knmvn.
Nonetheless, the aim of this paper is to examine mriow attempts by Nigerian writers to grapple with the issue of military governance. lo t h i s wise, several questiom become undoubtedly penincent: How have Nigerian writers perceived the diary as an instioltion and as a political force in the postcolonial contest for power? How has the m i l i w been inscribed or how has it inscribed itself into Nigerian letters? What are the aesthetic modes and trends obsembIe in the various reflections of the deeds and misdeeds of soldiers in politics?
Taking cognkance of the age-long dialectical afffity between politics and poetics, the paper contends that the trajectoly uf a peop:s7s socio-poliud development fmdr enduring records not only in history and political treaties, but quite imponandy, in the gamut of their literary and performing arts. The practices of literature across ages show a close link between social temper and the tenor of literary discourse. As Andrew Delbanco observes "the use of literature is to afford us a platform whence we may command a view of our present life. a purchase by which we may move it" (1999: 34). Through literature, a society can, in the words of Rotimi, question "the prevailing credos and pracuce of authofiy with a view to opening up i o monopolies to the beneficial generality ' (1999: 20). In the particular case of Nigeria, the utilitarian value of literature is undeniable as it more oheo than not. yields a greater insight into socio-political even6 To this end, Nigerian literature presents a poignant engagement with historical realities in a manner that is rewarding, not only to literary scholarship, but also to the study of politics in the postcolonial state.
The paper begins by e e m g Nigerian writers' responses to the first coup of 1966 and the performances of soldiers in governance after the coup until 1979 when a transition to civilian rule was concluded. The reactions range from euphoric approval to cautious ophism. Beside, the civil war fought between 1967 and 1970 generated a significant body of writing, which is discussed under the section: "Words on Warn. The return of military rule in 1983 brought about a more turbulent polity and by implication a more socially engaged literature. The latter is the focus of "The Sewnd Coming" while the paper's overall concerns are summed up in the "Conclusion".

When They Struck
Quite understandably, military leaden were initially associated with supererogation charisma and magical potentials. This is the same frame in which the so-called 'native Ahicaos' c a t past colonid rules, who in the words of Ekeh were "perceived by most Africans in magico-religion terms, to dispense good life and to introduce what Africans could not produce" (1978: 327). Thus, the milimy uar seen as succour to the hilings of politicians who took over power from the imperialists. However, the d t a r y intervention that Ademoyega describes as a ''painless surgical operation designed to heal a sick Nigeria" (1981 : 126) turned out to be a lethal injection.
One writer who early enough has held in suspicion the military's corrective missions in politics is Ola Rotimi. In Our Husband Has Gone MadAgain -a comedy premiered in 1966 at W e University-Rotimi shows as incongruous, the anempt to foist a culture of a u t h o r i~m on Africa's emergent democracy. The predictable product of such icwngruity is failed democracy as witnessed in Nigeria and some other sub-Saharan African nations where that tendency thrived.
J.P Clark-Bekederemo likens soldiers to the legendary Phaemon's dog3 in his collection of p x m~ on contemporary poIitical issues -Stare of the Union. Through the metaphor of the Phaemon's dog. Clark calls anention to the relentless hemorrhaging of national resources under military regimes. Ironically, the interventions of these regimes are premised on the lack of accountability and uamparency under civil rule. Revelations of corrupt enrichment of prominent members of Gowon's regime after its deposition in 1975 readily come to mind. The sour reality of soldiers locked in a fierce race to amass wealth as if to outface civilians is captured with notable clarity by Clark: These days. the whistle has not gone But the pack is off rushing for shon cuts, And nobody bothers when they return With so much meat in their mouths (1985: 13).

The M i l i t a r y in Nigeria ' s Posrcolonial Liferalure
In "The Cleaners", Clark queries the notion of ethical purification ascribed to the ditixy. Soldiers are depicted as "cleaners" who seize the pubic sphere in order to wash it and clear the state of rot generated by politicians in the course of their "disastrous race" in power. In a cbaracteristicdy Mnic tone. Clark contends that 'the cleaners' themselves are drenched in the rot of the state that they set out to clean: They are themselves so full Of muck nobody can see The bottom of the pool For the mud they carry h d cast so freely at a few (1985: 5).
The trope of cleansing is also explored in Odia Ofeimun's The Poet Lied. Soldiers, according to the poet, are -The Broomw who arrived the p o l k i d scene few years earlier to clear the streets and highways of governance, already "clogged with garbage". As far back as the early 1970s when many of the poem in the section titled 'The New brooms' were written, disillusionment was rife in the polity. By 1974, the Gowon regime had ppecially when it squandered the remaining bob of public confidence and sympathy e.. reneged on its promise to restore democratic rule by 1976. Yet, all that w s strong with Nigeria's socio-political formation in 1966 when politicinns were chased out of power still persisted, perhaps worse now lhan ever before. In a poetic rhapsody shot h u g h with hh& of subverted aspirations which the reigning order presented, Ofelmuo show as a mark of the regime's incompetence, its shifting and unsteady promises of handmg-over. Undoubtedly, Ofeimun is a poet with admiration for wounding but soothing verses.
The idea of messiahnismgoneawry is treated with similarly biting irony in "lie Messiahs" ( 10) and "their Excellencies" (1 8-19). Here, the reader is confronted through a cluster of metaphors with betrayal of expectations. Here are "messiahs" who prefer: .., feeding the hungry with 21-gun salutes for victories that are yet to be won (1989: 10).
The poet paints a palpable picture of poverty. siamtion and disease. which successivr military regimes could not successllly tackle, even as they contentedly "move in their merry-go-rounds" (1989: 18). As an inherently conservative instimuon set up to presenle the establishment, the military is quite suspicious of change and it frowns at the quarteri where such a cbange is emanating from, especially if i s authority is going to be at the loslng end of the change. Perhaps, this accounts not only for the familiar reluctance to yield power to civilians, but also for the ruthlessness with which coups are executed, resisted and punishedif unsuccessful. Niyi Osundare in Songs of rtze Marketplace attemptr a portrait of the post-First Republic military mlers "mlling by boot and butt". In their customary preference for

Revisla Alicantina de Lst~rdios Ingleses
instant c o n f o~t y without dissension. they stock "dissidents throatslwith bullets from foreign friends " (1983: 14). That this is a widespread perception of military rule among the people is attested by the fact that the opinions are presented as dominant in the marketplacethe parliament of the masses.
The blood bath that usually follows an unsuccessful coup in Nigeria engages the amtion of Clark in "Easter 76" (State of the Union, 7-8). He specifically takes on the public execution of the plotters of February 13, 1976 coup which clauned the Life of the Head of State, General Murtala Muhammed. Through a subtle ironic distancing, Clark jolts the public and the State that condonethe spectacle of public execution into hother segment of reality that has hitherto eluded them. Clark's resenation is directed at asystem of contest for power that dispatches "thirty odd men" humedly to their graves. He also indicts members of the public who find satisfaction in this spectacle of death. Such a system that is pivoted on forceful seizure of power carries with it a great risk. Unfortunately, civilians and i~o c e n t by-standers are sometimes caught in the throes of orchestrated rage after an unsuccessful coup. People have been arrested under excuses as curious as playing polo or ludo or sharing a bottle of beer with an alleged coupist, shortly before or after the coup.
This reality reached its shocking height under General Babangida (during the 1986 and 1990 coup attempts) and General Abacha (in the 1995 and 1997 alleged coup attempts).
Here, Clark questions the fundamentals of the military concept ofjustice and penology. which are not aimed at reformation but anchored on scapegoatism. The goal of martial justice is to eliminate forces threatening the establishment at the moment, using them to dissuade future traitors. Meanwhile, the tendency for miscaniage ofjustice is high with the arbitrariness that attends the investigation and mal of suspects. It deals with effects instead of digging deep down to the root of the crime. Consequently, the execution of coup plotters since 1976 has never stopped coups d'etat, just as violent robbery continues unabated in spite of public execution of armed robbers under the Armed Robberies and Fire Arms Decree, (1971) .' One important development in the aftermath of the civil uar was the upsurge in the wave of violence and crime. The war facilitated easier access to firearms by combatants on both sides and even members of the civil society. Many of the combatants discharged after the war bad to contend with unemployment and poverty in the absence of a sustainable programme to integrate them inro the civil society. thus, resorting to robbery. Apart from Ibis, there was also a sudden increase in oil revenue as a result of the Middle East crisis in the mid 1970s. This led to the famous oil boom and its attendant recklessness in public spending. The boom also strengthened cormption and people's taste for foreign goods. However, it could not bridge the wide gap between the rich and the poor. It only created an elite of smpendously wealthy citizens and a comfortable middle class. Amidst the overt economic imbalance, cormption presented opportunities for instant wealth and social mobility as demonstrated in Kole Onlotoso's novel -Memories of Our Recent Boom and Osofisan's satiric comedy -Who's Afioid of Solorin? In the alternative, violence offered a means to the same end. as dramatised in Osofisan's Once Upon Four Robbers.
The h41filOg~ in Nigeria S Poslcoloniaf Literalure 117 From a dialectical materialist viewpoint. Osofisan engages the menace of armed robbery against the background of political authoritarianism and economic inequality in Once Upon Four Robbers. He contends, like Clark, that visiting violence on armed robbers through public execution would not curtail robbery but breed greater violence. A solution to the problem lies in recognition by the state that the menace is a direct consequence of its predatory economic system, founded on unequal access to oppomities and resources within the social smta. The play is, therefore, an indictment of the post-civil war economic policies of the military government that widen the gulf between the few haves and the majority have-nots. In a somewhat related development, Soyinka adopts what in theatre history has become the most opulent of all theatrical f o mthe operato capture the opulence and cormption of this era in Opem Woqosi (Six Pl&sJ. Given the palpable feeling of unfulfilled expectation by the populace toward the army as evident from the foregoing, the tide of public opinion was increasingly hostile to marrial mle and turned in favour of a transition to democracy. The popular sentiment became ~risci, bi o kd le gb2 mi. semi bio se b& mi, ("Divinity, if you cannot rescue me from my present predicament, restore me to the status quo ante"). This much was clear to a MurtalalObasanjo regime. However, given the enormous import of political power in accessing national wealth, among other alluring oppomnities, and given the fact that the military institution had become a major force in the pourer configuration. it was not unconcerned about irs civilian su~cessor.~ It became an interested umpire.
lhis reality not lost on Nigerian writers as reflected in "Handing over" the second chapter of Omotosho's Just Before Dawn. Also, Clark-Bekederemo in "Election Report" Stare ofdle Union, 17-18) describes the 1979 General Election as "a numben game from the start". He captures the manipulation as well as the legal disputation that attended the election hallmarked in the famous mathematical quandary: What constitutes the two-third (213) of 19 states -13 Or 12 two third states? Osundare dismisses the willfully courted confusion as "Rithmetic of ruse" in Songs of the Markerplace. In his words: Theirs is the rithmetic of deceit pmer hunters wallowing through circles ro a minus throwing Cooking numbers for gullible mass (1983: 19).
To the poet, the whole exercise (1979 General Election) was a hoax as the military on its departure had determined its successor. The legitimacy of the civilian regime produced by the disputed election was somewhat vitiated ab inirio. This among other reasons might have led to a quick return of full-blown military autocracy on December 3 1, 1983.
The Ni~zrian civil war between 1967 and 1970 and its attendant dislocations in people's Lives actively generated a sizeable canon. Writers have captured in various anistic modes. their experience of the war either as direct participants or as concerned by-standers. But the common aims are to achieve a true understanding of socio-political dynamics that caused the war, to truly heal the wounds of war and to face the challenges of national development. One fmds in these texts, useful documentation of the intricacies of war and indices of communal catharsis in the process of healing the wounds of the war. Though they are essentially fictional, the works complement various reports already contained in historical/biographical writings like Wale Ademoyega's Why we smtck, Raphael Alade's 7 k Broken Bridge, Elechi Amadi's Sunset in BiaJa, Olusegun Obasanjo's My Command, Ken Saro-Wiwa's On a Darkling Plain etc.
During the war, Soyinka's bid to play the "third force" in mediating between the Nigerian and Biafm sides brought him into confrontation with the Gowon regime. He uas consequently detained for most part of the war. The Man Died is his prison memoifi in which he relives the experience of detention. Its tone is acerbic ai~d vitriolic against his gaolers. Besides, Soyinka's Madmen and Specialists (Sir Plays)presents the tragedy of apost-war nation. The society emerging from the war is at the mercy of brutal and depraved human beings like Dr. Bero, the Old Man and his acolytes of AS philosophythe Mendicants.
Ola Rotimi's Kurunmi is a dramatisation of the Ijaye war in Yoruba history. The tragic m h r i o n of the conflict in the play demonstntes the futility of war as a solution to political disagreements. The playwright flaws the hubristic cornmiment of Aare Kurunmithe Generalissimo of Oyo armyto what he calls "tradition". Rotimi indicts the failure of dialogue and the resort to shedding kins' blood in a way that points at the parties involved in the Nigerian-Biafran war.
In poetry. J.P. Clark's "The Casualties" in Casuairies: Poems 19966/68 redefines the general notion of "casualties" of the war. It goes beyond the detained, wounded and dead people. The entire nation is the victim, the casualty, fighting a war that is "not just our war" (1970: 38). Other poems in the collection reflect the horror of this period of disaster.
Ciabriel Okara, easily the patriarch of modem Nigeria poetry discusses the war in The Firhemen's Invocation. "Suddenly Air Cracks" is an example. The poet tragically paints the devastation wreaked by an air bomb. The bomb leaves in its trail, a gory and gruesome spectacle: The sadless hearts, the mangled bodies stacked in the morgue become memorials of this day (1979: 38).
'The Silent Guns" bemoans the violation of peace and serenity of a village. The warranged village is now ruled by "sounds of exploding shells and I rattling guns and raucous laughter of death" (1979: 44).
To Odia Ofeimum, the war has turned the nation into "senseless abattoirs". In "Where Bullets have Spoken" (The Poet Lied) Ofeimum portrays the tragedy of a nation locked in a fratricidal war. Dialogue in such a theatre of violence is conducted only in the language On~vubko's pessimistic admonition: "the dispute between Nigeria and Biafra could not be senled by war... . As for the soldiers, they cannot find the answer: the only answer they know is the gun. We never had any war of this magnitude until they seized power" (1976: 240-241).
Okpewho fictionalises the war in 77le Last Duty from the viewpoint of six characters -Ali, Toje, Odibo, A h , Oghenovo and Oshevire. This is a unique experiment in style, somewhat unprecedented in Nigerian fiction. Against the backdrop of the characters' ineluctable interactions, Okpewho shows the war as being powered by greed, opportunism and acquisitive predilections of privileged individuals. Cluef Toje Onovwakpo who belongs to this category uses the war not only to keep his rival in rubber business (Oshevire) in detention, but also to use the latter's wife to re-activate his waned virility. Hence, the war in a sense is a gratification of ego longings of its promoters. it is also a means of settling personal animosity rather than pursuing a patriotic end. The victims are usually the less privileged like A h , Oshevire and Odibo.
Rstus Iyayi is more incisive in the evaluation of the civil war in Heroes. The novel is a re-definition of the authentic heroes of the war beyond the common notion. lyayi contends t h t there is no difference between the inhumanity and brutality of the Federal troops and that of Biafran Soldiers. Thus, he punctures the illusion among civilians that Federal soldiers are "good, virtuous and humane" while Biafran soldiers are "liberators". Soldiers on both sides are depicted as "murderers, rapists and killers" (1986: 71). Iyayi sees the war as the proverbial fight between two elephants where by the grasses (masses) are the victims. He argues that the war is not that of the masses, rural poor. urban workers. but that of army generals. politicians, businessmen, clerics and bureaucrats. It is more of an intra-elite competition for national resources as encapsulated in the experience of Osime Iyere. the protago~ist of the novel. "This is an investment in blood and destruction by those at the helm of affairs with the expectation of profit" (1986: 64) Osime concludes.

Revisfa Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses
In aU ramifications, Heroes is a departure from the triumphaIist accounts of the same historical event in autobiographical work like Obasanjo's My Comn~~nd. Iyayi offers a sharp re-construction of the civil war from a Marxist ideological perspective. To him, history is not the making of only great men or great events. From time to time, the ordinary people are part of events that shape and constitute history. Thus, he contends that when the authentic history of the war is wriuen, the true heroes would not be the leaders of Nigeria and Biafra -Yakubu Gowonand Odumegwu Ojuliw respectively. They would not be their lieutenants and field commanders. Rather, the real heroes would be ordinary soldiers on both sides at the battlefront, used by the ruling class as expendable objects of combat. They were the ones bearing all assaults of riffles, grenades, bombs andmonars. The l i t would also incIude ordinary citizms who were forced by the hostiIity to contend with psycho-social didocation arising from hunger, disease, poverty anxiety and fear. From the foregoing, it had been adequately depicted in Nigeria's literary arts that the dvil war is one important event that underscores the failure of governance under army rule.
Though the seeds of the war had been sown long before 1967 in the divisive and sectarian politics traceable to the colonial period, the military indeed accentuated the problem.

The Second Coming
The second coming of military rule was premised on failure of democracy indexed by breach of law and order, inept and compt leadership, collapse of social utilities, unemployment, parlous economy etc. However, the noose of autocracy became tighter between 1984 and 1999. From General Muhamrnadu Buhari to General Abdul Salaam Abubakar, repression was more brazen. Power, and by extension resources of the state, became increasingly penonalised. Corruption still persisted and hopes for poverty eradication dimmed in spite of several anti-poverty programmes of each military administration.
Lfwriters were detained or exiled in the previous era, they were haunted and killed for deuces ranging from plotting coups to engaging in minority rights activi~m.~ And like the proverbial bird that has learnt to fly without perching because men have learnt to shoot witbout missing, Kigerian writers became more daring in their engagement with the ills of ditary rule. This is evident in such works like Esiaba Lrobi's Hangmen also Die. Frank Uche Mowah's Eating by the Flesh, Akin Adesokan's "Mr. Johnson Finds Works", Tayo Oiafioye's A Carnival of borers and Ogaga Ifowodo's Honieland and Other Poems among others. The greatest historic challenge faced by the nation and its writers was how to permanently tenninatc military rule and instau democratic governance. In view of this, Kigerian writers joined the global opposition to dictatorship, which became strident in the past-cold war era.
Soyinka's From Zia Wiriz Love, for instance, is an unequivocal censor of military dictatorship as manifested in the Buhariiidiagbon regime. It is set in a Maximum Security Prison. In spite of the playwright's denial of "an)! correlation with actuality" (1992: 91, the Amidst the aura of mystique and complexity of masks worn for the moon and the poet's engagement with the intricate panerning of nature, one deciphers in the collection an abiding concern with the intrigues of governance under the military. The same poet further reinforces this point in Waiting Laughters. Subtitled "a long song in many voices", some of these voices sing about the nation's moment of "iron clad" rule'. For instance, the poet through a Biblical allusion draws an analogy between the repression suffered by Israelites under King Pharaoh of Egypt and that experienced by Nigerians under the post-second republic military rulers. He describes the latter as "green gads" under whom: Ordinances tumble down like iron showers decrees strut the streets like swaggering emperors hangmen hug the noose like a delicate baby and those who die thank Death for his infinite mercies (1990: 46).
The promise of an early return to democracy atid respect for fundamental human rights j earned Babangida's regime public confidence at its inception. But a wide gap sooner 1 developed between this promise and the regime's deeds and policies. Several insmces of 1 brutal suppression of public protests by law enforcement agents, arbitrary arrests and detntion of the regime's critics, indefinite closure of media houses and seizure of their publications have been documented.' 14 transition programme that began in 1986 actually i ended in a stalemate after the annulment of the June 12. 1993 presidential election. The programme was distinguished by singular disingenuousness and it became evident that it I nns aimed at anything but a successful transition to genuine democracy. In his drama Ail-airing Trouble, Oloruntoba-0ju ostensibly anticipates the manipulations and chaos that marred the programme. He however, reconlnlends violent revolution as the solution to tyranny as enunciated in the agitation of Alegethe jailed revoluuonary. Alege has been ! detained unjustly by the martial order.
The botched transit~on also inspired .4hmed Yeri1na.s The Silerlr Gods. But unlike Olorutoba-0ju who sees a solution to the crises of democratisation in a popular revnlurion.
Yerinlah rccommends a generational and gender shifr in tile locus of power. The power that 9% generated so much acrimony and division in Ilu Oja is handed over to a virgin at the end of ttc play. Your11 and womc~folk hold the key to a new order in view of unending lisay~i~ltmenx from t'lc older generation and men folk. The latter have been dominating poxr especially in the military order.
Perhps, the transition programme could not have fired better. This is because the -New Breed politicians" on whom it was anchored were an embodiment of vices associated wkh their predecessors as well as the shortcomings of members of the regime in power.
Rmi-Raji gibbets the kind of politics and politicians throw up during that era in A Harvest crf Lau~hrers. Both are diitinguished by de'ceit,-subterfuge, tricks and whin~ical roanipulation of popular will for a pre-planned goal. In "Here They Lie", the "New Breed" politicizns are cast off as "newly bred tricksters" who like their military mentors invent dnring promises in order to win votes: Every fool is a new politician who promises each homestead its uiw rain in full glare of drought.. In this orchestra of poli-tricksters even thecompere is a blessed smiling liar whose endings are beginnings of new tunes (1997: 55) The culture of "rented crowd of solidarity message bearers" developed from the June 12, 1993 election crises. Desperately in need of a basis for legitimacy that it lacked, the bbangida regime turned io the civil society for support-traditional rulers, market women, sadens, religious orgauisations etc. The need of the government bred a crowd of pnfessional loyalty mongers in State and Federal capitals. It assumed a more cynical &&ion under the Abacha regime.' Sycophancy mrned out to be a lucrative enterprise &implied in Raji's "The Rally Rats". According to the poet, the fulsome praises by these @dn?pporlers for the reigning dictator are "shaped by the smell of minted money" (1997: 5;1 and they u ill also be readily available for his successors.
Ona general note, the realrty of militarism has engendered its own aesthetics. Hence, tla: predominance of dratua of rage, fiction of protest and poetry of indignation. Indeed, k m r e of "anger and protest" flourished during the period. These writings are mmrkablefor dc:iherate violationofhallowed conventions of literary compositions without n~e m i l y impedinz si:nificatiom. After all, military rule itself thrives on violation and m3versioa of ~l e s .
Throrlgh their arts, writers parricipated in the general struggle to end militarj dictatorship. While some syrnpathise with victims of harsh politico-economic p3ficies of military government (e.g. &ructural Ad~ustment Programme), some depict the r d i t y in its grin~esb. Somr: seek to s:ir resencnent in the people against the nditary, goad tbe;n into a possible confrontation with a view to liberating them. Wonkby of note here are the realm of narrative prose, "faction" is a conscious artistic legacy of the era. mlrough it, writers blend raw data of history with matrices of imagination and rhetoric.
Omotoso's Just Before Darvn, Adebayo Williams' i7le Remains of the Last Emperor, So\varibi Tolofari's The Black Minisrer and Frank Uche-Marah's Eclling @ the Flesh also interrogate military dictatorship through the artistry of "faction". nze Black Minister for example, Tolofari reflects the trajectory of Nigeria's postcolonial history as the country hops from one military rule to another. There is a ,&,g similarity between the Atamgba -republic of the novel and Nigeria especially after h e Second Republic. Specifically, the novel is the author's critical response to Babangiws eight years in office. An Army I~eneral, Ahmed, r h o leads a guerilla strugg!e for Atamgba's liberation, becomes its lader after the struggle. But his cabinet is his Achilles beel, as it is made up of people who often don't share his vision and ideology Dr. Alabo HaUiday -the Minister for Coal and a University don is an exception. The consequent clash of interests leads to a palace coup that overthrows Ahmed and replaces him withLieutenant-General h g o Buba. Unfortunately, the latter's deliberate revisionism destroys most of the progressive gains of his predecessor. Doomed in the process is the dream of a free democratic and economically enmcipated Atamgba.
Dr. Halliday, the minister for Coal is at the centre of the conflict. He is convicted and jailed for twenty years by a special Military Tribunal for alleged "abuse of office and causing finarlcial hardship to the country". Dr. HalIiday 's trial here recalls that of Professor Tan David \Vest, the former Petroleum Minister in 1990. However, there are echoes of other socio-political events l i e the murder of Dele Giwaa journalistin 1986, the Gideon Orb's coup of April 22, 1990, the frequent fuel price hike and consequent mass protest, religious and ethnic conflicts and the North-South dichotomy among others events that lend the novel its contemporaneity and facnonal credentials.

Concluding Remarks
The inauguration of anorher civilian administration in Nigeria on May 29, 1999 is a significant event in the nation's postcolonial history. The pervasive disenchanmeni oi the people with military rule in the 1980s and 1990s made the transition a crucial political turn that calls for deep reflections on peoples' experience under the military and SOW ~0lCitrS while in power erect new realities.
The paper has focused on the militaq as an institution and as a political force inscribed by creative writers into the fabric of Nigerian Literature. Of particular and major interest are works tkat address the phenomenon of milimy rule between 1966 when the first roilitary . coup took place and 1999 when another attempt at civilian democracy wxs launched. The control of the hstnlment of coercion and polirical power has conferred on the WW' a significant control of the economy as well. As such, it has become a cenual factor in Nigeria's postcolonial polirics. la leviathanbearing in politics correlates with its remarkable recurrence as a subject in literature, even though it is treated with more hostility.