Nwosu investigates how successive regimes in Nigeria have sought to create and develop legitimate political authority and structures, and how these structures have shaped and developed the civil service and its capacity to plan and induce economic development. He addresses the fear that the civil service does not have enough authority to fulfil its centralised functions and gain support and credibility, instead relying on mechanisms from ethnic appeal to coalition making. He identifies the alternative and plural clusters of power, and discusses how they arose, and how they have shaped the processes, which have turned Nigeria into an unbalanced federation, further constrained by corruption, and a lack of skilled manpower and infrastructure.