No other official commentary on Nigerian public life captures with such brutal frankness and insight the logic behind political competition in contemporary Nigeria. Even the soldiers who overthrew President Shehu Shagari in December 1983 did not hesitate to adopt as the reform charter of their regime the recommendations of the Transition Report which Shagari himself was avowedly following. The absence of fundamental cleavages amongst Nigeria's political class means that struggle for power is always less concerned with radically competing policies or ideals, than it is with who secures power itself and who controls the disposition of its spoils.