New Book from the Nordic Africa Institute:
Olukotun, Ayo. Repressive State and Resurgent Media under Nigerias Military Dictatorship, 1988-98, Research Report No 126, 136 pp, Published: April 2004 by the Nordic Africa Institute
ISBN: 91-7106-524-5, Price: 100 SEK/ appr. 10 EURO
Keywords: Nigeria, media, press, military government, censorship, political opposition, democratization, Africa
This study documents a crucial dimension of the resistance of Nigerian civil society to a repressive and monumentally corrupt military state in the late 1980s and 1990s in Nigeria.
Employing a neo-Gramscian theoretical framework, the study relates how a section of the media defied censorship laws, outright bans, incarceration and the assassination of opposition figures, to prosecute the struggle for democracy.
It captures the tensions and contradictions between a pliant section of the media which sought to legitimise the state and a critical section of the same media which, in alliance with radical civil society, invented rebellious outlets to carry on the struggle against dictatorship.
The study seeks to make fresh departures by documenting not only the role of the national media in the throes of democratic struggle, but that of the international media whose role was influential in the years studied.
Finally the report offers empirical proof of the mechanisms by which a vibrant civil society can curb the ravages of a predatory state in an African country.
Ayo Olukotun is a lecturer in the Department of political science at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. He was formerly the editorial page editor of the Daily Times, Nigeriaís oldest, surviving newspaper
This study is also available electronically (PDF-file) at our website. The electronic version is free of charge. For more information see the enclosed attachment or visit our website www.nai.uu.se/webbshop/ShopGB
Orders:
The Nordic Africa Institute, P O Box 1703, SE-751 47, Uppsala, Sweden Phone 0046-(0) 18 56 22 00. Fax 0046-(0) 18 56 22 90. E-mail: [email protected]. Internet: www.nai.uu.se/
Order the Nordic Africa Institutes publications online: www.nai.uu.se/webbshop/ShopG
