Counting the Costs of Violent Conflicts: Examining Nigeria’s South-East Region (Part 2)

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) struggle for an independent Igbo nation has assumed a militant dimension in the last two years following the government\’s efforts to rein in the group. Besides the five states that constitute the current South-East, IPOB also lays claim to some other states beyond the region with a significant population of Igbo people. The federal government has labelled IPOB a terrorist organisation and has targeted the group\’s leadership for arrest, detention, and even extrajudicial killings.

Simultaneously, similar repressive strategies are being used against agitators for the Oduduwa Republic in the Yoruba South-West. However, while the counterinsurgency in the South-West has involved raiding the homes of agitators, the case of IPOB has attracted the militarisation of most states in the South-East. Sadly, the militant activities of IPOB and the government\’s overreaction to them have undermined both human lives and infrastructural facilities in the region. While last week\’s piece focused exclusively on the impact of IPOB-related conflict on human lives, this edition of Nextier SPD Policy Weekly examines the costs of the conflict on public infrastructure and what needs to be done to ensure safety.

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