In December, 1980, John Block, the Illinois farmer selected by Ronald Reagan as his new Secretary of Agriculture, told reporters: “I believe food is the greatest weapon we have for keeping peace in the world.” Mr. Block envisioned America shipping its agricultural surpluses to hungry nations in return for “more stability in the world.”

Opinion is now universally agreed among all people of conscience, that the so-called Tanzanian experiment is a complete and dismal failure. Reviews critical of this ‘experiment’ and warning about the impending catastrophe, which began to appear in the international press in the middle of 1980 as a whisper, had become an uproar by late 1982 as the hopes and optimism that accompanied the apparent and aberrant recovery of 1976-79 were dashed and shattered by the return of the food crisis in 1980 and the perseverance and intensification of the general economic crisis. The pace of deterioration of the economy has accelerated since 1980.

In recent years, development theorists, planners, and practitioners have placed much greater stress on the crucial importance of popular participation in promoting rural development. Twenty years ago it was fashionable to talk about national planning; today it is fashionable to talk about participatory development. As in the past, the wealthy, the well-educated, and the professionals define the contents of participatory development and how it should be applied to and by the rural masses. Socialist theorists attack the bourgeois state and pontificate on the transition to socialism; the capitalists denounce state intervention and invoke the magic of the market; the peasants look toward the sky and pray for rain; and the cows amble in search of grass unaware of their crucial role in the participatory development process.

In this day and age, Marxism-Leninism is the leading and least parochial theory of social revolution in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. It strongly appeals to intellectuals who believe that capitalist imperialism in “neocolonial” forms perpetuates social injustice on a world scale; and that a “conscious minority’ ‘ or vanguard of the downtrodden should establish a “developmental dictatorship” dedicated to the pursuit of economic and social progress. Since the death of Mao Zedong and the subsequent repudiation of his economic theories in China, collectivism as an economic strategy has been reassessed and found wanting in other countries whose leaders are disposed to learn from China. For example, in the People’s Republic of the Congo, where collectivist methods, inspired by Marxism-Leninism have been discarded in favor of entrepreneurial methods, the minister of agriculture has said simply, “Marxism without revenue is Marxism without a future.”

The “Brain Drain” phenomenon has been characterized as the dramatic migration often permanently, of specialized human capital from developing to the technologically advanced countries of the world, particularly to the United States of America and Canada where there are better work facilities, and attractive remunerations for professionals such as physicians, surgeons, engineers, lawyers and others. Apart from these relative economic opportunities, the prevalence of political stability and freedom in the developed countries serves as an attractive force for the lamentable loss of intellectuals and professionals from the developing to the developed nations.

When the phenomenon of military rule in Africa first attracted the attention of researchers, the thrust of inquiry was the explanation of the apparent anomaly of the coup d’etat. After years of effort, epitomized by Samuel Decalo’s work on Coups and Army Rule in Africa, a consensus seemed to have emerged that a general theory explaining military intervention could not be found. Scholarship thus turned its focus to the military as policymakers. This essay shall seek to do both — explain military intervention; and evaluate the performance of the military as policymakers. Nigeria, which is into its second epoch of military rule, provides an appropriate case study.