Nigeria has one of the most elaborate and most extensive privatization programmes in the world. This paper analyses the efforts made by the Nigerian government to expand the political constituency for privatization. It argues that the government attempted to diffuse opposition to privatization,...

A leading model of African political economy in the late 1970s and early 1980s held that African governments pursued 'antidevelopmental' policies in order to secure political quiescence from politically influential urban-based middle and working classes. Seen in this light, the Structural...