Title: Oil, Politics and Violence: Nigeria’s Military Coup Culture (1966-1976)
Author: Siollun, Max
Publisher: Algora Publishing
Pages: 284
Date Read: 01 January 2022
Bookshelves: read, favorites
My Rating (out of 5): ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is a book you definitely want to lay your fingers on if you are anyone (Nigerian preferably) who loves to read about history. Violent political militarized history.
In fairness, the story was set out to be naturally interesting. It focused mainly on the coups and counter-coups, betrayals, violence and bloodbath that plagued the early years after Nigeria’s independence. However, it would be impossible as well as unfair to dismiss the excellent manner in which Max rendered the events year after year, event after event. The beautiful links, the semi-graphic narrative and the much needed metaphors combined in appropriate amounts made the storytelling a worthwhile experience which made me paradoxically speed through the book while not wanting it to end at the same time.
For far too long, leaders and policy makers have lacked the courage to tell the story of what went down in those bloody years. And those who chronicled their experiences through books must have saturated them with ethnic and tribal sentiments. This book, in my opinion, is free of bias and the fact that the author (a Nigerian) managed to steer clear of undue sentiments makes it even more remarkable.
I highly recommend that every Nigerian read this book to not just enable us learn from our history but to also get a first hand experience on how to fit a masterpiece in less than 300 pages.