THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF BIAFRA (IPOB) AND THE QUEST FOR SELF-DETERMINATION: MODES OF OPERATION, PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

Nigeria, a political edifice built by the British in the early decades of the 20th century, has been facing many challenges that have bedeviled her journey towards democratization. The reason for this troublesome journey could be ascribed to her precarious colonial foundation which discouraged unity, progress and nation building, and fanned the embers of hatred, animosity, discord and rancour among the various ethnic nationalities. These ultimately resulted into a thirty-month civil war (1967-1970) that claimed million lives. Nigeria’s post-civil war nation-state peace-building project was framed around the Three Rs (3Rs) policy of Reconciliation, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction, which was supposed to shape the nature of national citizenship, the “peace dividend,” and reintegration of Ndigbo into a united Federal Republic of Nigeria. Unfortunately, this lofty policy was not carried out to the letter. This study shows that the emergence of pro-Biafra groups, especially IPOB within the country and in the diaspora that evoke memories of, and nurture the quest for, a “new” Biafra, is as a result of hurt, injustice, marginalization, insecurity, political and ethno-religious killings, etc. of Ndigbo, which are still very much the fact that the “Nigeria Project” cannot stand while a major part of its constituency is consciously stunted. This study, therefore, examines the method of operation, problems, prospects, and the journey so far in the quest for self-determination by the IPOB.

Keywords: IPOB, operation, problems, prospects, self-determination