By targeting the two leaders who advocate a separatist state in southern Nigeria, Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho, the authorities wanted to regain control of the region. The two men are accused of disturbing separating tendencies. But the security measure, which is considered “excessive”, risks having the opposite effect.
Almost a month later, the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu continues to raise questions. On June 27, the Biafran separatist leader was arrested and forcibly returned to the capital, Abuja, in circumstances that are still unexplained to this day. The mystery remains at the scene of his arrest, even though our sources point to Kenya.
A few days later, it was the activist’s turn Sunday Igboho, committed to the creation of a nation “Yoruba”, to undergo a police attack in the middle of the night. For Olufemi Vaughan, a professor at Amherst College in the United States, these two sections confirm government policy to “criminalize disagreement.”
“We are witnessing a growing tendency for the authorities to favor security measures, sometimes out of court, in order to suppress some form of segregation,” he told RFI. Symbol of this drive, a tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari, published on June 2, in which he promised to “punish” pro-Biafra groups accused of increasing attacks on government institutions and security forces. The post was deleted by Twitter for encouraging racial hatred.
The fight continues
“The more the government becomes authoritarian, the more it will provoke violent reactions from the opposition and make the latter stronger, resounding and legitimate,” adds Olufemi Vaughan. Despite the arrest of its leader, the independence movement of the indigenous peoples of Biafra (Ipob) has promised to continue “its struggle for freedom”.
Biafran groups are not the only ones demanding independence. In southwestern Nigeria, in the countries of Yoruba, the country’s second largest ethnic group, separatist talks are also being heard. Last Sunday, Gani Adams, a military representative from this group, said “a Yoruba state is still possible.” Words that followed two weeks ago demonstrations in this direction in Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria.
Blowing on embers
“All the young people in this country are tired,” Colonel Igboayaka O Igboayaka, chairman of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council, a group defending the interests of Igbo Christians in the southeast, told RFI. “Before the eyes of an entire generation, in our generation, there is the same source that in Nigeria led to the civil war in Biafra: and that is injustice,” he explains. As proof of this, he sees a bill that stipulates that 30% of the oil revenues generated in the south are shared with the states in the north. “It’s theft in broad daylight!” Northern states do not produce oil, so why would they benefit from our revenues? If Yoruba also demands secession, it is because they suffer the same abuse and injustice that we do. “
Phenomenon of marginalization
Asked by RFI about these calls for secession, David Umahi, president of the Forum of Governors of Southeastern Nigeria, and also governor of the state of Ebonyi, declined to comment … as did his counterparts in the states of Imo, Enugu, Anambra and Abia. But in a video released in May last year, he insisted that the Southeast “does not want war”, while acknowledging the need for more social justice.
For Olufemi Vaughan, this demand is the tendons of war. “In Nigeria, the prevailing feeling is that Muhammadu Buhari’s government only represents the interests of Hausa-Fulani (Peuls) in the north,” he explains. “This feeling of marginalization is exacerbated by the arrival of the Fulani shepherds, who claim land in regions not belonging to them,” the professor added.
“The current administration is basically doing nothing to address this problem. On the contrary, the general perception is that it is complacent and that in a way it encourages marginalization phenomena. And when this feeling arises, it creates more uncertainty, which leads to the demands for separation re-emerge, he adds.
Towards a debate on federalism
Nigeria has already faced the divisive danger, as evidenced by the conflict in Biafra in 1967. This new wave must be taken seriously, says Olufemi Vaughan, but for him the movement will not go any further: “Just because there are loud groups demands secession, but that does not mean that everyone in the same ethnic group is ready to join the separatist demands. “
According to the professor, the secessionist threat is also weakened by the phenomenon of social mixing: “Yoruba is present everywhere in Nigeria, and the same goes for Igbo. And to conclude: “Yoruba, like Biafra, Igbo and the Niger Delta ethnic groups, demands greater representation in the leadership of their own government; they demand more inclusion; they are finally calling for a fundamental restructuring of the country in the sense of real federalism. . “
Olufemi Vaughan, Professor at Amherst College, USA
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