THE IGBO IN NIGERIA: HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AND THE QUESTION OF RESTITUTION, 1967-2002

Abstract

The Igbo are part of the constituent units which the forces of the British colonial government welded together to produce the state known today as Nigeria. The Igbo had evolved with the other ethnic groups since the inception of Nigeria. However, the socio economic and political situation in the country had by 1967 moved them to secession. The move by the Nigerian military to crush the attempt by the Easterners to secede as a separate state known as the Republic of Biafra in 1967 has been seen as the most proximate cause of the Nigeria-Biafra War. The said war lasted for 30-odd months during which most parts of Igboland were turned into theatres of military confrontation. As a consequence, many lives and property were lost and the human rights of the people wantonly abused. In May 2002, the Obasanjo administration set up the Human Rights Violations Investigations Commission of Nigeria, also known as Justice Chukwudifu Oputa Panel to hear and collate the grievances of Nigerians bordering on human rights abuses of successive administrations in Nigeria. At the Panel’s hearing sessions, some prominent Igbo people at the behest of Ohaneze Ndigbo – the apex socio-cultural and political organization of the Igbo, tabled their grievances and made far-reaching demands as restitution or compensation for the series of injustices the Igbo suffered during the war. The case presented by Ohaneze appeared simple on paper but in reality, it is complex and knotty. It is in this connection that the study aims at analyzing the contentions for restitution of the human rights abuses suffered by the Igbo, especially as agitated by the Ohaneze Ndigbo. The paper contends that despite the characteristic complications in most conversations on restitution, implementing wholly or the key parts of the demands made at the Oputa Panel by the Igbo is one sure way of addressing the threatening challenges to the corporeality of the Nigeria state, by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra and other separatist groups.