The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War, lasted from 1967 to 1970 and resulted in the deaths of over a million people. This conflict emerged from a complex interplay of political, ethnic, cultural, and religious tensions that had been brewing since Nigeria's independence from the United Kingdom.
Map of Nigeria showing the breakaway state of Biafra (1967-1970)
Historical Context: A Nation Forged from Diversity
In 1960, Nigeria gained independence from Britain. The new country was formed from a colonial amalgamation of different regions with different majority ethnic groups, including the Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa-Fulani. This civil war is connected to the colonial amalgamation in 1914 of the British Northern Protectorate, Lagos Colony, and Southern Nigeria Protectorate, which was intended for better administration due to the proximity of these protectorates. However, the change did not take into consideration the differences in the culture and religions of the people in each area.
Nigeria gained independence from the United Kingdom on 1 October 1960, with a population of 45.2 million made up of more than 300 diverse ethnic and cultural groups. When the colony of Nigeria was created, its three largest ethnic groups were the Igbo, who formed about 60-70% of the population in the southeast; the Hausa-Fulani of the Sokoto Caliphate, who formed about 67% of the population in the northern part of the territory; and the Yoruba, who formed about 75% of the population in the southwest.
Political alignments changed between, within and across regions, provinces, and communities. The authority of the Federal Government and the terms of political association were questioned at various times by politicians and soldiers from each of the regions and by politicians from both the North and the East.
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Divergent Political and Social Systems
The differing political systems and structures reflected and produced divergent customs and values. The Hausa-Fulani commoners, having contact with the political system only through a village head designated by the emir or one of his subordinates, did not view political leaders as amenable to influence. Political decisions were to be submitted to. As with many other authoritarian religious and political systems, leadership positions were given to persons willing to be subservient and loyal to superiors.
In contrast to the Hausa-Fulani, the Igbos and other Biafrans often participated directly in the decisions that affected their lives. Furthermore, they had a lively awareness of the political system, regarding it as instrumental for achieving their personal goals.
These tradition-derived differences were perpetuated and perhaps enhanced by the colonial government in Nigeria. In the north, the colonial government found it convenient to rule indirectly through the emirs, thus perpetuating rather than changing the indigenous authoritarian political system. Christian missionaries were excluded from the north, and the area thus remained virtually closed to European cultural influence.
By contrast, the richest of the Igbo often sent their sons to British universities, with the intention of preparing them to work with the British. At the time of independence in 1960, the north was by far the most underdeveloped area in Nigeria. It had an English literacy rate of 2%, as compared to 19.2% in the east. In the west, the missionaries rapidly introduced Western forms of education.
The Seeds of Discord: Political Maneuvering and Ethnic Tensions
The colonial administration divided Nigeria into three regions-North, West, and East-something which exacerbated the already well-developed economic, political, and social differences among Nigeria's different ethnic groups. On this basis, the Northern Region was allocated a majority of the seats in the Federal Legislature established by the colonial authorities. Within each of the three regions the dominant ethnic groups, the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo, respectively formed political parties that were largely regional and based on ethnic allegiances: the Northern People's Congress (NPC) in the North; the Action Group in the West (AG); and the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) in the East.
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Distribution of Major Ethnic Groups in Nigeria
During the 1940s and 1950s, the Igbo and Yoruba parties were at the forefront of the campaign for independence from British rule. Northern leaders, fearful that independence would mean political and economic domination by the more Westernized elites in the South, preferred the continuation of British rule. As a condition for accepting independence, they demanded that the country continue to be divided into three regions, with the North having a clear majority.
Workers became increasingly aggrieved by low wages and bad conditions, especially when they compared their lot to the lifestyles of politicians in Lagos. Most wage earners lived in the Lagos area, and many lived in overcrowded dangerous housing. Labour activity including strikes intensified in 1963, culminating in a nationwide general strike in June 1964.
The 1964 elections, which involved heavy campaigning all year, brought ethnic and regional divisions into focus. Widespread reports of fraud tarnished the election's legitimacy. Westerners especially resented the political domination of the Northern People's Congress, many of whose candidates ran unopposed in the election.
Using the "martial races" theory first developed under the Raj in 19th-century India, the colonial government had decided that peoples from northern Nigeria such as the Hausa, Tiv, and Kanuri were the hard "martial races" whose recruitment was encouraged while the peoples from southern Nigeria such as the Igbos and the Yoruba were viewed as too soft to make for good soldiers and hence their recruitment was discouraged. As a result, by 1958, men from northern Nigeria made up 62% of the Nigeria Regiment while men from the south and the west made up only 36%.
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The Coups and the Massacres: A Descent into Anarchy
On 15 January 1966, Major Chukuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna, and other junior Army officers (mostly majors and captains) attempted a coup d'état. The two major political leaders of the north, the Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and the Premier of the northern region, Sir Ahmadu Bello were killed by Major Nzeogwu. Also murdered was Bello's wife and officers of Northern extraction. There was widespread suspicion that the Igbo coup plotters had tipped him and other Igbo leaders off regarding the pending coup.
Six years after independence, a set of back-to-back military coups installed an Igbo leader, who was then removed in a counter-coup organized largely by officers from the Hausa-Fulani-dominated North. In the chaos that followed, thousands of Igbos living in the North were massacred, prompting tens of thousands of Igbos to flee to the east, where their people were the dominant ethnic group.
Decree Number 34 of May 24, 1966, promulgated by Ironsi was the beginning of the end for him. The decree made the centre strong, thereby abolishing the powers granted to the regions. These caused massive unrest in the Northern part of the country as the Northerners had gone against the delimiting of regional powers as far back as 1959.
With the Northern counter-coup of July 29, 1966, the political development of Nigeria’s federal structure took a different turn. It was heightened even more by the fact that the Eastern Regional Government in Enugu immediately threatened secession if certain grievances and demands were not met.
The Secession of Biafra and the Outbreak of War
The Igbos doubted that Nigeria’s oppressive military government would allow them to develop, or even survive, so on May 30, 1967, Lieutenant Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu and other non-Igbo representatives of the area established the Republic of Biafra, comprising several states of Nigeria.
After diplomatic efforts by Nigeria failed to reunite the country, war between Nigeria and Biafra broke out in July 1967. On May 30, 1967, Ojukwu declared the secession of the three states of the Eastern region under the name of the Republic of Biafra, which Nigeria’s federal government interpreted as an act of rebellion. Fighting broke out in early July. Within weeks the conflict had escalated into a full-scale civil war.
A Brief Explanation of the Nigerian Civil War (Biafra War) | African Biographics
The secession of Biafra was a response to perceived marginalization against the Igbo people, and grievances regarding representation and power.
The War and its Devastating Consequences
Ojukwu’s forces made some initial advances, but Nigeria’s superior military strength gradually reduced Biafran territory. The state lost its oil fields-its main source of revenue-and without the funds to import food, an estimated one million of its civilians died as a result of severe malnutrition. On January 11, 1970, Nigerian forces captured the provincial capital of Owerri, one of the last Biafran strongholds, and Ojukwu was forced to flee to the Ivory Coast.
Within a year, Nigerian government troops surrounded Biafra, while capturing coastal oil facilities and the city of Port Harcourt. The war years saw General Yakubu Gowon serve as the head of state of Nigeria, while Biafra was led by Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka "Emeka" Odumegwu Ojukwu.
Yakubu Gowon and Emeka Ojukwu, the leaders of Nigeria and Biafra respectively.
The final Biafran collapse began on December 24, 1969, when federal troops launched a significant offensive. Biafra was short on ammunition, its people were desperate for food, and its leaders controlled only one-sixth of the territory that had formed the Biafran republic in 1967. Ojukwu fled to Côte d’Ivoire on January 11, 1970, and a Biafran deputation formally surrendered in Lagos four days later. The Republic of Biafra had come to an end.
Estimates of the number of people who died during the Nigerian Civil War vary significantly, from 500,000 to 3,000,000. Causes included battlefield deaths, ethnic cleansing, and starvation.
On January 11, 1970, Nigerian forces captured the provincial capital of Owerri, one of the last Biafran strongholds, and Ojukwu was forced to flee to the Ivory Coast. On January 15, 1970, the Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War, came to an end.
The Aftermath and Lingering Legacy
Gowon was able, through his own personal magnetism, to reconcile the two sides so that the former Biafran states were integrated into Nigeria once again and were not blamed for the Nigerian Civil War. The oil boom that followed the war allowed the federal government to finance development programs and consolidate its power.
The events leading to the Biafran secession and the Nigerian Civil War itself were the most tragic and important in the history of Nigeria. Gavin Williams argues that despite almost sixty years since end of the war, its legacy continues to shape Nigerian society and politics today.
Much is forgotten; what little is remembered is selectively constructed, as was much written at the time. War accounts were revived to serve current political purposes. The war itself was the pursuit of politics by other means.
| Cause | Description |
|---|---|
| Ethnic Tensions | Long-standing rivalries and competition among the major ethnic groups (Igbo, Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba). |
| Political Instability | Series of coups and counter-coups that destabilized the government and eroded trust. |
| Economic Inequality | Disparities in economic development and access to resources among the regions. |
| Colonial Legacy | Arbitrary division of Nigeria by British colonial rulers, exacerbating ethnic and regional differences. |
| Massacres and Persecution | Killings of Igbos in the North, leading to a sense of insecurity and marginalization. |
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