Undead Past: What Drives Support for the Secessionist Goal of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in Nigeria?

20 December 2022, Version 1
This content is an early or alternative research output and has not been peer-reviewed at the time of posting.

Abstract

Although the secessionist conflict in Nigeria’s Eastern Region has persisted for over two decades and become increasingly violent, no study has, to the best of my knowledge, examined the factors influencing support for secession using representative data for Nigeria. This study fills that gap. Relying upon the horizontal inequalities (HEs) theory, this study examines the effect of ethnic marginalization and socioeconomic condition on support for secession. Among members of the Igbo ethnic group, perceived ethnic marginalization at the group level was found to correlate positively with support for secession. Socioeconomic condition was measured at the individual, household, and communal levels. The individual and household measures had no effect on support for secession, but the communal measure did. However, the results contravened the prediction of the HEs theory: improvements in socioeconomic condition at the communal level rather increased the likelihood of supporting secession.

Keywords

Indigenous People of Biafra
IPOB
Secession
Horizontal inequalities
Ethnic marginalization
Nigeria

Supplementary weblinks

Comments

Comments are not moderated before they are posted, but they can be removed by the site moderators if they are found to be in contravention of our Commenting Policy [opens in a new tab] - please read this policy before you post. Comments should be used for scholarly discussion of the content in question. You can find more information about how to use the commenting feature here [opens in a new tab] .
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy [opens in a new tab] and Terms of Service [opens in a new tab] apply.