Who Rules Papa’s Land? C. Wright Mills and the Nigerian Power Elite

Abstract

In his immensely provocative work The Power Elite, Mills argued that the United States of America is controlled and manipulated by elite that constituted the leadership of three major institutions: business, government, and the military. These institutions and their leaders, over the years, have consolidated their hold on power while evading public opprobrium and chasm. Although Mills and those who support his thesis have been successful at applying the “power elite” model to the United States and, perhaps, developed countries in the Western hemisphere, it is debatable that his rigid classifications and their underlying assumptions apply to other countries, particularly in Africa with different socio-cultural, political, economic, and historical milieu. This article offers an opportunity to apply the “power elite” model to a non-Western, underdeveloped modern nation-state: Nigeria. Nigeria, the most populous Black nation on earth, is clearly under the control of a “power elite.” The question is which elite? Within relatively brief compass, I attempt to identify the Nigerian power elite as a way to validate or reject the “power elite” model of C. Wright Mills.