Addressing Secession Agitations

Nigeria is experiencing substantial secessionist crusades across many locations, especially in the southern part of the country. The movement for a Biafran nation, currently championed by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a predominantly Igbo separatist organisation, remains the most daring. The group has created a parallel regional security apparatus known as the Eastern Security Network.

The region has lost millions of naira from these sit-at-home orders. A similar separatist organisation, the Yoruba Nation Movement led by Sunday Igboho, operates in the South-West region of Nigeria. Other secessionist struggles include the relatively sedate Biafra Customary Government (BCG), Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Niger Delta Republic, and the Oduduwa Republic.

Data from Nextier SPD Violent Conflict Database26 shows that in the twelve months to September 2021, Nigeria recorded 74 alleged secession-related violent incidents in the South-East and South-South regions of Nigeria, resulting in 352 casualties (comprising of 98 civilians and 78 security agents), 17 persons injured, and two persons kidnapped. In addition, Amnesty International reports that between 2015 and 2016, Nigeria’s security forces killed about 150 pro-Biafran protesters across Southeast Nigeria.

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