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Abstract
This article examines an aspect of Nigerian ethno-nationalism that has received relatively less attention compared to other ethno-nationalist mobilisations of the Ijaw, Ogoni and Yoruba ethnic extractions. As a direct response to the persistence of the ‘national question’ and a political culture that has structured power relations, political claims and recognition from the colonial to the postcolonial era, the advent of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) marks a reinvention of Igbo nationalism. Unlike other ethno-nationalist mobilisations, the salient character of MASSOB finds expression in its separatist inclinations, its rejection of a state-led process and rootedness in the aborted secessionist war for Igbo self-determination between 1967 and 1970. Given the contradictory ‘pulls’ and ‘demands’ of membership in the Nigerian public sphere, MASSOB's quest for self-determination assumes salience and intensity owing to the fact that it challenges the sovereignty and authority of the Nigerian state. This article emphasises the dialectical relations between ethnic groups and state, and it deploys ethnicity as a critical ‘exit point’ for marginalised groups in a multi-ethnic state. The foregoing lays bare the salience of ethnicity as a powerful political instrument, and unveils the fractured character of citizenship, and the enduring crisis of state ownership and national unity in Nigeria.
Notes
The coastal states in Nigeria are Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross-Rivers, Delta, Lagos, Ondo, and Rivers States. Lagos is a non-oil-producing state and not on this list. Edo, Imo, and Abia are not coastal states, but are landlocked oil-producing states. The protests by Igbo groups stemmed from the inclusion of Edo State, which is landlocked, while Imo and Abia states were left out entirely, see Obiagwu Citation(2006).
Some of these groups emerged in the early and mid-1990s and have either ceased to exist (or are dormant) or still remain active. Their existence and activities are gleaned from Nigerian newspapers, author's fieldwork and interviews.
See ‘Nobody can stop Biafra’, The News 7 January 2000:42.
Daily Champion 19 November 2007:41; The News 10 April 2000.
Interview with area administrator (Lagos), MASSOB, 26 January 2009.
‘NIGERIA: Government cracks down on Biafra secessionist movement’, IRIN News 19 April 2005, http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=53971
The Guardian 30 November 2000.
Saturday Champion 7 July 2007:14; Daily Sun 1 December 2008:19.
See the Report on the Election Boycott, http://www.biafra.cwis.org/pdf/REPORT%20ON%20ELECTION.pdf
The BF and BAF are behind this initiative, which reportedly appointed a US-based psychologist, Dr Emmanuel Enekwechi, to serve as the prime minister of the BGIE.
Thisday 11 August 2000.
The News 10 April 2000.
The Guardian 12 April 2008.
See for instance, ‘Plight of MASSOB’, Daily Champion 16 May 2008; and ‘Nigeria: MASSOB releases list of slain members’, This Day 13 May 2008.
See Daily Champion 17 November 2008.
See ‘We must have Biafra’, The News 22 May 2000:18.
See ‘A Gathering Storm’, The News 27 September 2004:13.
Sunday Champion 18 June 2006:2.
Thisday 24 July 2006:8.
See ‘I will bury Nigeria’, The News 17 April 2000:16.
See ‘Hints of a new chapter’, The Economist 12 November 2009.
This is a popular form of transportation in many Nigerian cities where passengers are conveyed by motorbikes.
According to Emmanuel Onyeme, MASSOB's area administrator in Lagos, ‘the realisation of the Biafran dream may not be achieved immediately, but my present engagement with the struggle is meant to ensure that my children will enjoy the fruits of emancipation’ (interview 26 January 2009).
Chuks, a younger member of the MASSOB in Lagos asserts that ‘all we want is Biafra and total independence now’ (interview 19 January 2009).
Some of these websites include: www.biafraland.com; www.biafranet.com; http://magazine.biafranigeriaworld.com; www.umuigbousa.org; www.kwenu.com; http://ekwenche.org; http://biafraforum.biafranet.com; http://www.bianu.net; http://igboforum.igbonet.com; http://wazobia.biafranigeria.com
During my fieldwork I attended MASSOB meetings on two occasions where I observed some of these practices, and discussed them formally and informally with members of the movement.
Daily Champion 26 August 2008; Daily Champion 13 May 2008.
In a personal interview the vice-president of Aka Ikenga, Chief Goddy Uwazurike, argued against MASSOB's strategy, which sinks in with youths in Igboland who did not witness the civil war' (interview 15 January 2009).
The Nation 30 September 2008; Daily Punch 22 September 2008.
‘MASSOB: Why senate turned its back on Uwazuruike’, Saturday Champion 7 July 2007:14.
For a different version of the role of Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo in the abortive Third Term saga, see Irukwu (Citation2007:211–20).
Daily Champion 13 February 2008:1; Daily Champion 6 February 2008:1; Daily Champion 12 May 2008:1.
See Okey Maduforo ‘Nigeria: Obi betrayed MASSOB, says Uwazuruike’, MASSOB News.
See ‘Nigeria: south-east under siege: robbers, kidnappers on the rampage’, Vanguard 25 July 2009.