Modernisation and Political Disintegration: Nigeria and the Ibos

Abstract

On 30 May 1967, Lt.-Col. C. Odumegwu Ojukwu, Military Governor of Nigeria's Eastern Region, announced the secession of Eastern Nigeria from the Federation and the creation of the sovereign and independent state called the Republic of Biafra. The birth of Biafra was the product of a long and bitter blood feud between the conservative, Muslim, Hausa-Fulani people of the North and the progressive, Christian Ibos of the East. The roots of the hostility are deep, but the immediate impetus for the break-up began with the military coup d' état of I 5 January 1966, in which the civilian régime of Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa was overthrown and several leaders assassinated.