The Biafran State & the Rise of IPOB: A Crack on Nigeria’s National Integration

Abstract

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) had recently joined other secessionist agitators in the South-east region of Nigeria to demand for Biafran independence. IPOB together with several other uprisings in Nigeria have greatly challenged the possibility of achieving national integration. These challenges are often attributed to the unsolicited amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates in 1914, which produced a geographical expression known today as Nigeria. Unsolicited in the sense that the colonial authorities at that time failed to seek the consent of the diverse ethnic nationalities that later became part of the federation. Indeed, it was the amalgamation of these diverse ethnic nationalities that created the present need for national integration, to help fuse together the multiple ethnicities in the new born nation. Thus, in the post-colonial years, there were policies and programs initiated by various administrations to help foster unity and true federalism among the various groups. Unfortunately, the unfolding events from 1960 leading to the civil war in 1967, and the war itself dealt a big blow on the unity of the young nation. The Nigeria-Biafra civil war which started as a result of the secession attempt of the Igbo dominated Eastern Nigeria ended in 1970, with Gowon and subsequent leaders initiating several policies and programs to rekindle the fire of national integration. Fifty nine years after the war, the unity of the country is still under serious threat. It appears that neither the 3R program of Gowon, nor the Federal Character policy of Shagari among others, have been able to effectively address the problems of federalism, which has left multiple cracks on national integration efforts. The thrust of this paper therefore, is to examine the rise of IPOB with the aim to understand why the federal government policies failed to address the increasing tempo of secessionist movements in the country. Also, the paper will analytically demonstrate how government failures contribute to the rise of IPOB and its attendant threats to national unity.