... the Republic of Biafra seceded. “They say that secession is the answer to the charges of marginalisation,” said Acting President Yemi Osinbajo during a Biafra civil forum last week in Abuja. In the wake of what unfolded in Biafra, doctors and journalists formed Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF. Biafran Secessionist Movement Grows Stronger in Nigeria, The Dragon's Reach - China's Economic Power Play. On storefronts along the streets of Umuahia, photos of Nnamdi Kanu and Odumegwu Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, the leader of the short-lived Republic of Biafra (1967-1970) are pasted on wooden doorframes. Pro-Biafrans say the federal Nigerian government is discriminating and marginalising them, the Igbo people. Two of them have been Igbo. When the war started, he joined a Biafran brigade to fight Nigerian soldiers. The war ended with the surrender of Biafra in January 1970. An incident at a hospital ward round in southern England brought back memories of his Biafran childhood to a Nigerian doctor. Found inside – Page 710The outcome of the Nigeria-Biafra war (the Nigeria Civil War or the Biafran War of Secession) depending on one's orientation ... The defeat of the Biafran secessionist movement was disastrous and tragic, not necessarily for Biafrans who ... 1.2 THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK. When images of Biafran children flooded Western media, the world began to pay attention. The Nigerian Civil War, between the self-declared secessionist nation of Biafra and the independent nation of Nigeria, began on 30 May 1967 and ended on 12 January 1970. The Oxford Handbook of Nigerian Politics offers a comprehensive analysis of Nigeria's very rich history and ever changing politics to its readers. With an estimated population of more than 180 million, Nigeria is often called the “giant of Africa”. There is pain and hardship everywhere. The study on political action and secession movement in Nigeria is focused on Biafra and the secession movement. In a lineup of almost two-dozen chiefs of army staff, the highest-ranking military officer in the Nigerian army, two have come from southeastern Nigeria. It was a war fought between the government of Nigeria and the secessionist state of Biafra. More than thirty years ago military leaders of the Igbo (Ibo) people attempted to create the independent Republic of Biafra through the secession of the Eastern region of Nigeria. The war began on 6 July 1967 when Nigerian Federal troops advanced in two columns into Biafra. “Buhari hates the southeast because we didn’t vote for him,” says Chukwudi Diru, a taxi driver with a mini Biafran flag taped to the dashboard of his 2003 car. That year he was enlisted by Ralph Uwazuruike, leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, as a Radio Biafra anchor and broadcaster. Les Hijabeuses: Muslim women footballers tackle French hijab ban, A month after Kabul’s fall, Taliban stares at humanitarian crisis, US general called China over fears Trump could order war: Report, Photos: Taliban make themselves at home in strongman’s mansion, Al Jazeera Centre for Public Liberties & Human Rights. Buhari commented on this during a visit to the United States shortly after his win. Historically, Radio Biafra was last heard during the Nigeria-Biafra war of 1967-1970 when it was used as the Biafran war propaganda medium to champion the Biafran course. The rapid-fire growth of the Biafra independence movement since 2015 is proof of its popularity and gives the inkling that all is not well in Nigeria of the current era. Can you imagine that? He says he will not tolerate the Biafra movement. The following year, military officer Odumegwu Ojukwu annexed the southeast and declared the independent Republic of Biafra. Buhari hates our people.”. This volume is the first, comprehensive and balanced historical account of the momentous Nigeria-Biafra war. “Kanu is my saviour,” says Sopuru Amah, a senior student at one of Nigeria’s oldest universities, the University of Nigeria in the southeastern city of Nsukka. The events in Biafra from 1967 to 1970 are worthy of study by themselves. After the Nigerian federal military government – supported by the UK – imposed blockades that made it difficult for aid groups to deliver food and relief supplies to Biafra, many children died of kwashiorkor, a severe form of malnutrition characterised by a distended abdomen. Kanu’s ultimate crime is that he dared call for the secession of a part of the country that styles itself “Biafra” from the rest of Nigeria. Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. “Naturally, the constituencies that gave me 97 percent cannot, in all honesty, be treated [in the same way] on some issues with constituencies that gave me five percent. Found insideChallenges the centrality of uti possidetis in the law of territory, with in-depth human rights law coverage of African secession. In his landmark 2015 election victory, Buhari garnered the least amount of votes in the southernmost and southeastern region. Several of Lenin's basic theoretical essays on the national question are brought together in this volume. He says that there has only been one Igbo president and one Igbo vice president since Nigeria declared independence from the UK in 1960. They say Nigeria has failed them. You can download the paper by clicking the button above. Movements for the independence of Biafra have remained alive, though latent, since the civil war involving the Nigerian government and the then self-declared independent state of Biafra (1967-1970), one of deadliest conflicts in history. “First of all, the first thing you notice is the stomach bloated," says Christopher Ejiofor, a traditional king in his community in the southeastern state of Enugu and the aide to Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, a military officer and leader of the short-lived Republic of Biafra. The Nigerian government is determined to preserve Nigeria. Three years of war left southeastern Nigeria in ruins. There was no blatant external intervention in the Nigerian civil war by other states. Mercenaries from various states participated in the conflict but witho… Akpu joined the mass exodus of Igbo people from northern Nigeria to their ancestral homeland in the southeast. Nearly half a century after a civil war in which a million people died, 27-year-old Okoli Ikedi is part of a new protest movement in southeastern Nigeria calling for an independent state of Biafra. In one broadcast, Kanu said: “We have one thing in common, all of us that believe in Biafra, one thing we have in common, a pathological hatred for Nigeria. Found insideSamuel Fury Childs Daly examines the history of the Nigerian Civil War and its aftermath from an uncommon vantage point – the courtroom. A recent poll conducted by SBM Intelligence, a local research group, found that the pro-Biafra movement is gaining popularity in the southeast and that this growth could be a reaction to the perception that the region is marginalised and economically deprived. Last year, at a gathering of Igbos commemorating the start of the Biafra war, federal police killed some 50 people. The attempt failed but the effort was accompanied and preceded by large scale massacres. Found insideA global history of 'Biafra', providing a new explanation for the ascendance of humanitarianism in a postcolonial world. The war raged in Biafra, the secessionist region in the southeast of Nigeria from 6 July 1967 to 15 January 1970. In the mid-1960s economic and political instability and ethnic friction characterized Nigerian public life. Nigeria is also facing another secessionist movement in the southwest. Biafra was the fourth secession movement in Nigeria. He presents eye-witness accounts, and from an insider-perspective tells the story of how and why the Biafrans fought the war for almost three years under blockade and in isolation from the outside world, aiming to rectify much perceived ... Accessing the internet these days leaves you dazed by the intellectual firepower of… By Obuseh Jude The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. In these states, the directive was actively observed. This book provides a unique comparative study of the major secessionist and self-determination movements in post-colonial Africa, examining theory, international law, charters of the United Nations, and the Organisation of African Unity ... The buzz activated by the arrest and subsequent extradition to Nigeria of the leader of Biafra Zionist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, purportedly via the coordinated efforts of Nigerian security agencies and sister international security organisations, is still lingering on the information superhighway, as Nigerians continue to express differing views […] Biafra was total resistance against possible extinction of the Igbo and that was not a joke, it was survival. Because of the genocide, pogrom against Ndigbo all we needed was to form resistance and you can't form resistance as part of Nigeria. That marked the start of Nigeria's bloody civil war, which ended in 1970 after Nigeria blockaded Biafra's border and hundreds of thousands of people starved to death. During an address at the United States Institute of Peace, Buhari responded to a participant in the audience who asked how he would bring development to the oil-rich Niger Delta region in the south, which has suffered decades of environmental degradation due to oil spills and oil bunkering. Found insideA rich and accessible account of Yoruba history, society and culture from the pre-colonial period to the present. 4. But, the message of one Nigeria is too late for many people like Lawrence Akpu, a former Biafran fighter. Abstract This paper examines the secessionist agitations in Nigeria and the legitimacy of the Biafran self-determination struggle. “They certainly are at a disadvantaged position now,” Obasi says. This book demonstrates that the Biafra War, (1967-1970) was the second phase of the Igbo genocide after the initial massacre of 100,000 Igbo across the principal towns and cities of the north region and elsewhere in Nigeria during May ... (GIN)–The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has been arrested in London and returned to Nigeria where he faces trial for leading a secessionist movement in south-east Nigeria in 1967 which was met with a declaration of war by the Nigerian government, 30 years of fighting and more than a million deaths. Since the 1964 appointment of the first indigenous Nigerian as the head of the Nigerian Police Force, known as the inspector general, more than a dozen officers have held the post. This violent setup of the state is partly why the Biafran question remains an open sore . The 2015–2016 Killing of Biafran Protesters refers to the killing of demonstrators demanding the restoration of the sovereignty of the Republic of Biafra by Nigerian security forces, especially the Nigerian army, across the southeastern parts of Nigeria. The relative deprivation theory will be used for the purpose of the research work. Nigerian reports of mass hunger were rejected out of hand, by pro-Biafrans, as propaganda attempts to lower the morale of those trapped in the secessionist kingdom. Now, the Igbo youth is ready to do anything, including sacrificing their lives, to actualise the dream of an independent Biafra. Supporters say the grievances that led to the war have still not been addressed. What I propose to address here is the idea that it is a crime, per se, to call for the break-up of the entity called Nigeria. No wonder new secessionist movements in Nigeria are gaining momentum. The majority of the region's inhabitants are not interested in fighting another civil war. Since independence in 1960, Nigeria has undergone tremendous change shaped by political instability, rapid population growth, and economic turbulence. The Historical Dictionary of Nigeria introduces Nigeria's rich and complex history. We have our right to self-existence and it doesn’t matter what anybody things about it,” he told VOA. Email: Inyamajo@gmail.com All Right Reserved. Outside the South East geopolitical zone however, other than nostalgic sentiments of what would-have-been, the emotional cries for a Biafra 2.0 have not been well substantiated against the economic On Biafra Remembrance Day we ask pro-secessionist leader Nnamdi Kanu if the call for secession is growing louder. “Everybody started running up and down and from there, we left everything we had.”. In this series we have looked at the operational and strategic lessons of the Nigerian Civil War, this instalment analyses how a secessionist effort would be conducted today. The Nigerian government declared war and after 30 months of fighting, Biafra surrendered. He says he fought wearing rubber sandals and t-shirts with holes in them. In this volume, Clifford Zinnes argues that a donor's intrinsic informational limitations on the local context as well as inability to control the progress of interventions mean that lack of success is not rooting in insufficient funding ... The Nigeria civil war (1967-1970) provoked by declaration of Biafra republic had indelible imprint on Nigeria state. 2.4.5 The Biafran cause of secession endures, driven by a sense of unfair treatment and marginalisation which led to the formation of new independence movements. The radio station, which currently broadcasts out of London, served as the propaganda arm of the short-lived Republic of Biafra during the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970). The views of both Nigerian and foreign commentators on the national question will be analysed. 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