Nigeria is a diverse country with three large ethnic groups and a myriad of languages ranging from Igbo to Yoruba. The main three ethnic groups which make up the Nigerian population are the Igbo, Yoruba, and Hausa. While the socio-economic status of Nigeria has improved slightly over the years, Nigeria’s natural resources were not enough to aid the country’s poverty. In spite of its vast wealth, Nigeria is a relatively poor country consisting of a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of over 370 billion dollars (Ofoche, 2012). As the Nigeria-Biafra war was among the bloodiest in history, which ideological issues fueled this civil war, and were the country’s economy and politics affected in a positive or negative way? To test this question, it is vital to illustrate how this civil war was started and demonstrate how the country’s economy and politics were negatively affected. Nigeria's problems in terms of stability are a product of the country's socioeconomic and political situation. In response to the democratic rule in Nigeria and the trauma experienced Igbo group experienced, the Republic of Biafra was created ensuing a civil war between Nigeria and Biafra. The Nigerian civil war was one of the deadliest wars in history and had a significant impact on postcolonial Nigeria. Most commonly referred to as the Nigeria-Biafra War lasted approximately three years. Seven years after gaining independence from Britain, General Yakubu Gowon of Nigeria entered a civil war after Biafra’s deceleration of independence. The assassinations of leaders Tafawa Balewa and Sir Ahmadu Bello fueled the anti-Igbo sentiment resulting in Igbo killings. The Igbos returned back to their region and withdrew from Nigeria.
The war that occurred between 1967 and 1970 was driven by the ethnic tensions between the Nigerian government and the Republic of Biafra (Nwaubani, 2020). As the Igbos were pressured to relocate out of northern Nigeria, the Republic of Biafra was formed as a response to revolt against the corrupt Nigerian government. The secessionist state of Biafra was a small region in Western Africa between Nigeria and Cameroon on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. General Gowon was a Christian from the Nga ethnic group who led a countercoup in 1966. General Gowon believed in dividing the nation from north to south consisting of twelve states. By separating the states in an attempt to separate the Igbos, there became an apparent inequality in territory across Nigeria (Ofoche, 2012). As ethnic tensions increased, there was political instability between the major ethnic groups: Igbo, Yoruba, and Hausa-Fulani (Akresh et al., 2017). In 1966, the Igbo launched a coup d’état under the highest-ranking officer, Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi to aid the country from political disintegration (Heerten and Moses, 2014). After the coup d’état occurred, there became widespread Igbo control in the north and the Yoruba west leading to a more divided country. As tensions rose, the new head of state General Gowon took measures to punish Igbo for their revolution. This led to the Igbo leader’s formation of a new nation named Biafra in 1967 (Heerten and Moses, 2014). The Nigerian government claimed Biafra’s succession against the law and ordered General Gowon to invade the Republic of Biafra. On the sixth of July 1967, General Gowon instructed the Nigerian army to immediately surround Biafra and use all means necessary. The Nigeria-Biafra war started after a political clash when Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu of Biafra declared independence.
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While the two regions clashed, many civilians of Biafra died mainly because of the Nigerian Navy’s blockade that rejected all weapons, food, and medicinal supplies to enter Biafra territory (Heerten and Moses, 2014). As the war progressed until 1970, the Biafran people lacked resources while the Nigerian military slowly took territory. Finally, Colonel Ojukwu and his supporters understood their position in the war and fled to the Ivory Coast. In 1970, the Biafran troops formally surrendered and declared defeat. Consequently, the unification of Nigeria commenced under General Gowon’s rule. This civil war remains the deadliest in Nigerian history ensuing almost 100,000 soldiers killed. Additionally, this civil war ultimately led to millions of civilians dying in Biafra due to starvation from the Nigerian blockade (Maiangwa, 2016). The human suffrage in Biafra as a consequence of the war instigated public outrage resulting in foreign countries asking to intervene. Often, Nigeria has experienced an indefinite peace after being led out of West Africa by Britain. The Nigerian-Biafran war had generational impacts on the civilians in Nigeria and the political instability between Nigeria and Biafra caused by the war. The international influence of this war had led foreign countries to gain access to affordable oil while Nigeria remains in shambles (Orukpe, 2020). Towards the end of the war, the separation of states within Nigeria by General Gowon created great economic problems. For example, governments in some states struggled with accumulating funds to run their state. This places a tremendous strain on the federal budget in which the Nigerian government lacked funds for plans that would generate more jobs (Akresh et al., 2017). Nigeria’s various ethnic conflicts have the potential to hinder political leadership, resulting in long-term socio-economic issues. Ultimately, this complex civil war left a significant impact on the socioeconomic status and political issues present today.
The primary research question in our study is to investigate which ideological issues fueled this civil war and if the country’s economy and politics were affected in a positive or negative way. The primary ideological issue causing the Nigerian civil war was the clash of the three ethnic groups mentioned: Igbo, Yoruba, and Hausa-Fulani. The Igbo group makes up 70% of the southeast population, the Yoruba group formed 75% of the southwest population, and the Hausa-Fulani makes up 65% of the northern population (NWE contributors, 2018). Simply, Nigeria was separated into three regions: north, west, and east fixed to these unique ethnic groups. The north mainly consisted of Muslims and the east region consisted of mostly Christians. But the Western region contained both the Islamic and Christian religions (Akresh et al., 2017). The Yoruba and Hausa-Fulani groups shared similar political ideologies consisting of a singular monarch. However, the political system of the Igbo group consisted of a democracy. As a Hausa-Fulani, villagers were forced to follow the rule of their political leaders requiring them to abide by Islamic virtues. Nevertheless, the Igbo participated in a democracy allowing all villagers to have a voice in crucial political decisions. The Hausa-Fulani in the north lived in a far more underdeveloped area compared to the Igbo in the southeast (NEW contributors, 2018). The subsequent collapse of Nigeria is mainly due to the fact that these major ethnic groups were overwhelmingly rooted in one area, despite the fact that they were not strictly similar in terms of ethnic makeup (NEW contributors, 2018). Eventually, claims of electoral fraud were the primary cause of the formation of the military coup. In 1966, tensions between the coup and countercoup grew and eventually, the massacre of thousands of Christian Igbos took place under what is known today as the Nigerian-Biafran War. Today, many scholars believe the war could have been prevented if Nigeria’s leaders had chosen to sit down and hold conversations.
The post-colonial economic and political problems worsened over time which leads to this question. How was the socioeconomic status of Nigeria affected after the civil war? The Nigerian civil war resulted in a slew of economic setbacks for the region. Nigeria’s economy took a hit after the weapons and resources were bought for the war. Likewise, the Biafran civilians lacked economic resources as they were cut off by Nigeria post-war. Many civilians became homeless with little to nothing to live ensuing an economic hardship to the country. The economic impact of the civil war brought a setback in education and left most infrastructures weaker (Nafziger, 1972). Life in Nigeria was excruciating succeeding the war and the unfortunate thing was the government was unable to quickly enhance the economic situation. Over several decades, the GDP and trade were stabilized. Currently, the economy is steadily growing by a factor of 7% due to the country’s oil production (Ofoche, 2012). This improved economy is fueled by natural resources and product imports. Approximately 80% of Nigeria’s economy is supported by oil sources whereas 20% of the economy is supported by imports (Ofoche, 2012). Nigeria’s socioeconomic problems worsened after the war leading to the government scaling back its involvement in the oil trade to focus on improving its economy.
In a sense, the country’s oil is a vital reason the economy continued to grow after the war. Two prominent effects arise as a response to the neighboring countries’ interest in oil and natural resources from Nigeria. First, the country’s products are expensive, reducing the price competitiveness. Second, since the government’s revenue has increased, the imports increased as well (Ofoche, 2012). Thus, the involvement of neighboring countries in trade with Nigeria helped save their economy post-war. Although the war seemed to negatively hurt the country’s economy during the 1970s, the government no longer depends on revenue like taxes, but imports from foreign countries. Ignoring its past struggle economically, Nigeria has recently surpassed South Africa in GDP becoming Africa’s largest economy. The political system of Nigeria shifted from what was a parliamentary government to a democratic government. Before the civil war, Nigeria was controlled largely by military rule. After the war in 1979, Nigeria adopted a presidential system of government that only lasted several years (Ofoche, 2012). Between 1977 to 1999, the political system of Nigeria remained unstable shifting from a military rule to a democracy. This was a result of government corruption and electoral fraud weakening the legitimacy between the government and its civilians. In 1999, Nigeria returned to democracy after two decades of military rule. There have been seven military leaders since the country gained independence in 1960 (Ofoche, 2012). The myriad of government changes poses a threat to political stability preventing a successful power. Thus, impacting the Nigerian government by weakening the institution (NWE contributors, 2018).
The Nigerian people demanded resources from political leaders in the absence of public good which lead politicians to engage in unethical activities creating tensions that weakened government legitimacy (Nafziger, 1972). The lack of simple governing values translates to increased political instability. In Nigerian history, civilians have lacked trust in their government from years of missed promises and lies. Usually, government institutions are weakened because of incompetence and poor governance. For example, the issues in political stability rise from election fraud and lack of political transparency in the past. According to the conversation, “When elections did happen they were plagued by strong allegations of electoral fraud. Since 1999, when the country broke with military rule, five elections have been conducted all of which have been tainted by controversy” (Ini Dele-Adedeji, 2020). For political stability, democracy needs a strong, stable infrastructure like court systems, police, military, and legislature (Ofoche, 2012). After the civil war, the unstable political system in Nigeria also resulted in a direct negative impact on its economy.
In the final analysis, the Nigeria-Biafra war is an important issue to investigate as it illustrates an event that worsened over time and helps outline how the world now views and reacts to similar conflicts. Economic, ethnic, and political tensions rose due to Nigeria’s independence from Britain where the economy and political leadership were hurt by the war (Nafziger, 1972). The pre-colonial economic status of Nigeria was promising, and political leadership was stable, but the war created a long-term negative effect on the country’s economy and political system. With the continuation of the war, foreign countries including the United States sought to intervene as reports of suffering and starvation among the Biafran people became apparent (Ogunbadejo, 1976). The United States' lack of knowledge of the situation in Nigeria forced them to take a steady approach toward providing relief for the starving and homeless civilians in the Republic of Biafra. Despite a change in the administration, the US remained careful in directly intervening with Biafra even though impatience arose with General Ojukwu’s failure to attend to his people’s suffering.
When the war came to an end, President Nixon sent his congratulations to the Federalists for their role in the reunification of Nigeria (Bouchat, 2013). The economic situation, ethnic tension, and political instability illustrated a direct and dangerous relationship with one another. For example, the political instability of the government during the 1960s to 1990s correlated to the deep economic issues Nigeria faced post-war. Additionally, the ethnic tensions between the Nigerian government and the Republic of Biafra directly affected the Igbo group slowly fueling the Nigerian-Biafran war of 1967. The eventual collapse of Nigeria is largely due to the fact that these major ethnic groups were prodigiously rooted in a single area, despite being different in ethnic makeup. Fortunately, things in Nigeria improved significantly leaving Nigeria’s economy the greatest in the continent of Africa. According to the Institute of Labor Economics, “recovery interventions in the eastern states began after the war ended, enabled by an oil boom that occurred in the 1970s, which provided an expansion in government resources” (Akresh et al., 2017). The expansion in resources allowed the government to repair the damages caused by the war such as hospitals, schools, and federal buildings. Nigeria’s economy was saved after the war thanks to the participation of neighboring countries in trade with the country. Since the war seemed to damage the country’s economy in the 1970s, the government now relies on foreign imports rather than local revenue. In spite of economic struggles in the past, Nigeria recently passed South Africa as Africa’s largest economy (Ofoche, 2012).
The political instability in Nigeria is a result of numerous causes and fast solutions have proven to be largely ineffective. Today, Nigerian citizens are still concerned about the credibility of the country’s election system. Many believe a total renovation is necessary to prevent any external factors from interfering with the integrity of the election. Once Nigeria formally instated a democratic government two decades succeeding the war, electoral fraud and presidential instability amplified civilian concerns. In order to strengthen the legitimacy between the people and its government, Nigeria must either terminate or modify its electoral system. Strong leadership, honesty, and accountability are all needed to gain political legitimacy. The administration must also avoid all forms of fraud, as it can easily tarnish the government’s credibility (Ofoche, 2012). There is no easy solution, but Nigeria desires a strong leader with a vision for uniting the country’s people. While this will not immediately solve the issue of political instability, it will undoubtedly aid in the long run.
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