Democracy, separatist agitation and militarised state response in South East Nigeria

ABSTRACT

This briefing revisits the dynamics of post-civil-war agitation for a separate state arising from Nigerian state repression in Africa’s largest democracy. It analyses uncertainties among many Nigerians in the south-east of the country and focuses on the recent experience of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a group agitating for a republic of Biafra. It argues for a more democratic order that legitimises equality and social justice as organising principles of democracy.

KEYWORDS:

• Democracy
• civil agitation
• marginalisation
• inequality
• political economy of development

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Reginald Cline-Cole, Jörg Wiegratz and the two anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Luke A. Amadi

Luke Amadi holds a PhD in development studies from the University of Port Harcourt. He is currently guest editor of Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK. His international awards include the prestigious Elsevier Open Science Award 2022 in recognition of his 2020 article ‘Globalization and the changing liberal international order: a review of the literature’. His areas of research interest include globalisation, postcolonial studies, political economy, ecological justice and alternative development theory.

Fidelis Allen

Fidelis Allen is a professor of development studies at the University of Port Harcourt. Previously he served as Acting Director of the Centre for Conflict and Gender Studies of the University. He is currently a non-residential fellow at African Polling Institute, Abuja. His research has focused on a range of development themes, including natural resource conflict, politics of development, environmental policy and politics, social movements, gender, intersectionality and oil politics.

Zainab L. Mai-Bornu

Zainab Mai-Bornu is a lecturer at the University of Leicester, United Kingdom. She is a visiting research fellow at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University. She is also a visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Development Studies, University of Bath. Her work focuses on resources, inequalities, conflict, gender and development; she is concerned with amplifying marginalised voices within the context of vernacular security.