When military leaders and dictators ruled Nigeria, they sometimes tried to prevent unrest by

When military leaders and dictators ruled Nigeria, they sometimes tried to prevent unrest by

A. allowing peaceful, supervised political activity.

B. agreeing to small, incremental changes.

C. banning expressions of ethnic pride.

D. prohibiting all criticism of the government.

Answer: D. prohibiting all criticism of the government.

Several military leaders and dictators have at one point or the other governed Nigeria and they did not spare the citizens as they resorted to brute force to ensure that Nigerians obey all their decisions and policies, especially when they banned any form of opposition against anything the government was carrying out. It was recognized as a means to suppress dissenting voices and keep people from embracing beliefs that might endanger the rulers’ positions.

For instance, in the period when General Sani Abacha was in power between 1993 and 1998, Nigeria limited media freedom, especially in accessing the internet. Censorship was rife in Germany during this time and any journalists who were deemed to have crossed the line when it came to criticizing the government were arrested, threatened and some even assassinated. Arbitration of the media houses and detaining of some of the renowned critics including the writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa were not a rare incident. Also, under on Ibrahim Babangida’s regime between 1985 and 1993, the government came up with decree No. 4 which prohibited any material that could portray the government as unfit or any of its personnel in a bad light.

They applied these restrictions to all forms of public communication without exception and to every broadcast media outlet. Assemblies to support a particular political party, trade unions, and student associations were sometimes prohibited from expressing any rebellious opinion. These military regimes realized that stability cannot be achieved if there is opposition in any form; thus all forms of criticism were suppressed in the hope of preventing the creation of forums that would enable people to voice their dissatisfaction and even start a rebellion against the regimes that installed themselves in power.