Think imperially: the private press mediation of state policy and the global economy within colonial and postcolonial Nigeria

Many writers have argued that critical voices in the private press denouncing the military state indicated the presence of a resilient civil society in Nigeria since 1985. This article locates the advocacy of the press as watchdog of the state within the discourse of structural adjustment policy in order to examine the extent to which the private press constitutes an autonomous public sphere of debate within Nigerian civil society. It is argued that under structural adjustment programmes, education budget cuts and higher living costs diminish popular participation in press debates. While some civil society groups have contested government policies under colonialism and structural adjustment, this article examines how private Nigerian press publications have worked within the terms of successive political regimes to mediate the interests of the commercial elite within the global economy.