A New History of Crime and Law in 20th century Nigeria

Abstract

Historians have focused on the origin of the Nigeria-Biafran War (1967–70) and the conflict's impact on Nigeria's local and international policies. But no study has adequately interrogated the Biafran legal system. In his groundbreaking monograph, A History of the Republic of Biafra: Law, Crime, and the State in the Nigerian Civil War, Samuel Fury Childs Daly examines how armed robbery and fraud increased during the war and in postwar Nigeria. Drawing on court records, diplomatic records, and oral interviews, the author argues that Biafran citizens and state representatives broke the law to survive economic and political hardships. Many forged documents to avoid conscription into the army or impersonated soldiers to procure food. In some cases, individuals committed crime for self-aggrandizement or vengeance. Daly asserts that Nigeria’s experience with crime, especially fraudulent acts like advance-fee fraud, can be traced to the criminal behaviors that exploded during and after the war. In other words, the illegal acts undertaken by ordinary people in Biafra to cope with unemployment and poverty became part of everyday life in postwar Nigeria. A History of the Republic of Biafra contributes to histories of law, military, postcolonial states in Africa, and the Nigerian Civil War.