Annals of the Social Science Academy of Nigeria 14&15(1) 2002/3                         DOI: 10.36108/ssan/32002.5141.0130


Labour Policies of a neo-Fuhrer State: The Nigerian Case
‘Jimi O. Adesina
Department of Industrial Sociology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

Abstract
This paper examines the labour dimension of the Nigerian state in the period between 1994 and 1998 and argued that it is important to understand the unique nature of the state during this period. While Nigeria was not strange to authoritarian states, the specific mode of constitution of the state during the period requires specific codification—hence the idea of a neo-Fuhrer State. While it is common to analyse the form of constitution of the state during this period as an aberrant form, we argue that the basis and justification of dictatorship was laid by the political content of implementing the set of neoliberal policies that underscored Structural Adjustment Programme. It is in analysing the labour policies of the neoFuhrer State that we appreciate this. The paradox of the nature of response to autocracy at the time is binary: acquiescence on the part of senior union leaders and robust shop floor resistance on the other hand. This is the aspect of the political history of the period that is hardly emphasised and poorly understood. This paper serves as a corrective to both my earlier analysis and the historiography of the period.

 

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