Word: nigerian
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When it fought with U.N. forces in the Congo, the Nigerian army's 5th Battalion took special pride in its rigid military discipline. That was only three years ago, but as far as Nigeria is concerned, it is the remote past. Last week the 5th's proud tradition collapsed in an orgy of mass savagery that rivaled anything the Congo had ever known...
Early in the muzzy Nigerian August, one military junta took power from another in yet another coup that by now has become more commonplace in Africa than the tsetse fly. Whatever it is in the African climate or mentality or its shaky institutions that makes so many governments so susceptible to disintegration may never be very clearly understood. Perhaps there are some clues to be found in a novel source-a novel, that is, by Chinua Achebe...
...measure of the futility of the Ironsi regime that by week's end not even Nigerian diplomats had the slightest idea whether the uprising had been led by the North or the South...
...also banned the country's 107 political parties and tribal associations and prohibited the formation of new ones until he leaves power. Any of the dispossessed "who has not been found wanting" may continue in public life "not as an ex-politician or politician, but simply as a Nigerian with faith in his country's destiny." Ironsi also centralized the regional civil services and promised to do the same for Nigeria's universities, which are "duplicating rather than complementing each other in almost all courses they offer...
...decrees were stiff, and even stiffer ones would surely follow. Ironsi warned of the "many sacrifices, however painful" that would be required, demanding "not only the cooperation, but the discipline of every Nigerian...