Authoritarian State, Crisis of Democratization and the Underground Media in Nigeria

This article offers a perspective on state‐civil society relations during Nigeria's recent dictatorship, by documenting opposition to the military state mounted by two guerrilla journals and a pirate radio station. Drawing on primary and secondary data, the article discusses the antecedents, profiles and oppositional posture of the guerrilla media in the throes of democratic struggle. The media discussed were preponderantly located in the south‐west region of Nigeria, as indeed are the bulk of the Nigerian media. Throughout the article a case‐study approach is employed to underline how a vigorous civil society can check the encroachment of a repressive, authoritarian state.