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A Case Study of the Pro-Biafra Secessionist Social Movements

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A Case Study of the Pro-Biafra Secessionist Social Movements Transforming Genocidal Relations Through Strategic Nonviolent Resistance: A Case Study of the Pro-Biafra Secessionist Social Movements By Uchenna Chester Azubuike A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba, Canada In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements of the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Peace and Conflict Studies Winnipeg Copyright © 2018 Uchenna C. Azubuike All rights are reserved. No part of these pages, either text or image may be used for any purpose other than personal use with the author’s acknowledgment. Reproduction, modification, storage in any retrieval or transmission system and in any form or means (electronic, mechanical, or otherwise) is strictly prohibited without prior written permission. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My Doctor of Philosophy programme at the Arthur V. Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice at the St. Paul’s College of the University of Manitoba, Canada, is indebted to, and appreciative of, many persons and institutions. Firstly, my greatest vote of thanks is unto Almighty God for His grace and favour in seeing me through this Ph.D. programme. Also, I am highly thankful and will never lose sight of St. Paul’s College and the Mauro Centre for great opportunities given to me during my scholarship. This include three sessions of Graduate Assistantship and the Peace and Conflict Studies Academic Awards. I equally appreciative of the several bursary awards and grants by St. Paul’s College and its donors, the Faculty of Graduate Studies, and the Graduate Students Association of the University of Manitoba. Lastly on this note, I remain grateful for being honoured with the John Magrega Memorial Scholarship in the “Teaching the Ukrainian Famine Genocide (Holodomor) and the Ukrainian Canadian Internment”, University of Manitoba. In specific terms, I am eternally grateful to Dr. Jessica Senehi for her invaluable encouragement, excellent mentoring, long suffering and loving kindness. I do not think I would have been in the Ph.D. programme without her interest and unalloyed belief in my academic ability at a time I had almost lost hope of being admitted in the programme. It was Dr. Senehi’s angelic mentoring that took this work to the finish line. The same measure of gratitude goes to Professors Sean Byrne and Orest Cap for their academic and scholarly insights, mentorship, patience and love. May the abiding love and blessings of the Almighty God be with you all. No appreciation will be enough for the three members of my Ph.D. Committee for their assistant and unflinching support to see me through this study. Also, my special thanks go to the External II Reviewer of this study, Dr. Chima Korieh of Department of History, Marquette University, United States, for his speedy review of and insight about my study. Not left out are the staffers of Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice: Susan Ducharme, Annette Jones and Jason Brennan. I appreciate your levels of assistance and dedication to the successful running of the Centre. I thank all my colleagues and fellow students of the Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Manitoba. It was a great privilege to have meet and studied along with you all. Perhaps, I must point out that without the sacrifice of my mother, Beatrice Ogbonnie Azubuike, I would have been a school dropout during the first year of my secondary school education. In the same way, my great Cousin and Brother, Pharm. Steve Nwachi Onya, was the one who ‘converted’ me from a quack chemist attendant to a university graduate. He was the one that single-handedly funded my studies and upkeep from my first year as an undergraduate till the end of my master’s degree at the University of Ibadan and beyond. Bro. Steve, you are one in a million. In a very tearful but special way, I am using this opportunity to let Professor Fidelis Okechukwu Nyemutu Roberts know that my family will ever remain deeply appreciative of all that he did for me. I must say that my master’s and Ph.D. programmes could not have taken off without your immeasurable and unfathomable gift of love and sacrifice. I will never forget him telling me that money will not be an impediment towards my master’s degree course at the University of Ibadan. He was the miracle that settled my entire enrolment and tuition fees, and went on to pay my rents, and ensured that I never lacked. Yet, he is a man I hardly knew until fate drew me to him. I will never demean the contributions and encouragements of members of my family – Christiana, my spouse for standing by me, my lovely children and playmates, Chibudom, III Toochukwu and little Uchenna (David). Climbing on my shoulders or sitting on my laps to ‘help’ me with typographic errors was worth it. I also thank my brother-in-law, Engineer Patrick Ottah Awoke and his wife (my only sister) Ekweteri (Peace), Christopher Ibeh Azubuike, for their unflinching solidarity and assistance. The same goes to Mrs. Kofo Akinrinlola, Pastor Dr. Ike Isinguzo, Dr. Uche Nwankwo, and my in-laws, Barrister Toochukwu Okogwu and Sister Azuka Ekuma, for their support and prayers. I am also full of thanks to the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan, Nigeria. Working under the tutelage of Professor Roberts and with the support of Professor Olu Ajakaiye, NISER exposed me to the world of research and scholarly writing. I will not forget the assistance from the then members of the Political Development Unit, NISER, Professor Antonia T. Simbine, Professor Solomon Benjamin, Dr. Oladeji Abubakar, Dr. Nathaniel Danjibo, Dr. Akeem Tijani. I will not forget the helps from Dr. Oye Babatimenhin and Ms. Nancy Nelson-Twakor. I also thank Professor Eghosa E. Osaghae, the Vice Chancellor of Igbinedion University and supervisor of my first (abandoned) Ph.D. programme at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Along with Professors Rotimi Suberu, Adigun Agbaje, and Osisioma B. C. Nwolise and others too numerous to mention, I am grateful for your impartation of knowledge. Lastly, I am grateful to Mr. Matthew Mbanaja for his great contributions in making this study a success. He was a great harvester of research worthy materials. Thank you, dear brother and friend. May God bless you all. Amen. IV DEDICATION This study is dedicated to the following three persons. First, my Mother, Mrs. Beatrice Ogbonnie Azubuike. It was her who ensured that I finished my secondary school education. Also, I will remain grateful to Pharm. Steve Nwachi Onya. There was no way I could have had a university education, seven years after my secondary school education, had he gingered me to it, and bore the entire burden of ensuring that I never lacked anything as an undergraduate. You are my guardian angel. Then, Professor Fidelis O. Nyemutu Roberts. You believed in me more than I believed in myself. It was your inspiration, unrestrained financial support and mentoring that saw me through my master’s degree programme and you remained my Jurgen Klopp all through my Ph.D. journey. God bless you all, always. V ABSTRACT This study explored and explains reasons and outcomes of the deployment of strategic nonviolent resistance by the pro-Biafra secessionist social movements, as a weapon of war against, and towards the transformation of, the culture of genocidal relations in Nigeria. The idea about “Biafra” or today’s pro-Biafra strategic nonviolent confrontation is intricately-tied to undying secessionist resistance aimed at ending more than fifty years of episodic genocidal killings, and covertly-scripted policy of cultural genocide, by the Nigerian state against indigenous peoples of Biafra. This study reports that pro-Biafra movements, despite losing over 5,000 members to the state’s episodic genocidal attacks and extrajudicial abuses (between 1999 and 2018), remained steadfast in upholding nonviolent resistance as the best strategy towards actualizing their desired (Biafrexit) referendum towards a new Biafran state, and thereby save Indigenous Biafrans from another genocidal civil war. But while the Nigerian state resorted to “siege warfare” or its intensification of genocidal engagements against the Biafrans, this study discovered the nonviolent confrontation by pro-Biafra social movements gets stronger and more popular (with supports of and even secessionist agitations by some non-Biafran elites and groups). The study also discovered that “Biafra” since 2016 has become a metaphor for expressing/resisting the genocidal oppression against mainly Christian-dominant communities in other parts of Nigeria, and resistance against the Hausa-Fulani elite’s grandstanding opposition to the “restructuring” of Nigeria. Lastly, study concludes that as Nigeria becomes one of the deadliest, most terrorism-threatened and most war threatened (almost) failed states in the world, it is only an immediate confederal-like restructuring, or a referendum for a multi-state framework that will pull it from an inevitable genocidal balkanization. VI TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION .............................................................................................................................. v ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. vi CHAPTER 1: PREFACE AND GENERAL INTRODUCTION ............................................. 1 An Overview of the Chapters ..............................................................................................................
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