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Read, Debate: Engage.
| topic: | Colonialism |
|---|---|
| located: | Nigeria, United Kingdom |
| editor: | Bob Koigi |
In 1967, when a secessionist state of Biafra was carved out of Nigeria as clamour for independence intensified in what was perceived as marginalization of the Eastern region by the North, Nigeria sunk into unprecedented civil war that became the first to ever be televised in world history. Between 500,000 and 3 million people died mainly from fighting, diseases and starvation with the war lasting for 30 months. It is a conflict that redefined Nigeria’s politics and changed its global foreign policy to date.
And as the country this month marks 50 years since the Biafra soldiers surrendered and the conflict ended, it still evokes a cocktail of emotions from anger, remorse to regret. Even as the rest of Nigeria seems to have moved on and the subject remains a taboo, for the Igbo people who were pushing for the independent state, the conflict still remains a defining moment. The Biafra flag, a mix of red, black and green colours with a rising gold sun, still flies high in many buildings at the Southeast region.
Despite a bloody protest in 2016 during the Biafra day where up to 150 activists died as they clashed with security forces, and government terming The Indigenous People of Biafra, a group that agitates for secession, a terrorist group, the quest for an independent state keeps gaining momentum predominantly supported by Igbos in Diaspora.
Proponents have always cited marginalization, poor governance and lack of reconciliation as their key motivation. Yet there have been attempts to include people from the Eastern region into government and investment in development projects.
But the clamour for secession still persists. Nigeria needs to look deep and within for real answers if it is to address the bottled up anger, pain and the ghosts of the past that have tested the country’s unity and threatened to ignite another war. The root causes of the wounds that have refused to heal five decades on, and must be dealt with genuinely and conclusively.
