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The Role Of Russia In The Nigeria Civil War
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The London
conferences of 1956 seemed almost impossible. The various parties sent
delegations to the conferences with many misgiving against this
unpromising background; it is remarkable how much agreement was in fact
reached by the delegates to the London Conferences.
The all
important question of self government in 1956 was cleverly, side
stepped by offering self-government to those region that wanted it in
1956, but not to the federation as a whole, thus leaving it open to the
North choice for self government. The bitterest issue of the conference,
which broke the N.C.N.C., Action Group Alliance, was whether Lagos
should be part of Federal territory. The N.C.N.C. which had many members
in Lagos, also felt that a federation should have a true Federal
Capital, while the AG wanted it to be part of the Western Region. Once
again a conference about which most people had been very pessimistic was
a striking success.19
In so far, the two conferences
presented a framework that led to a Constitution under which Nigeria was
governed till the military take-over in 1966.
The Coup to Coup (January 1966 to July 1966)
On October 1, 1960 Nigeria became an Independent member of the
International Community. There was clear optimism about its future both
within the country and outside, particularly the European powers. The
Independence was achieved through patient negotiation between Nigerian
leaders and the colonial masters, not by violent revolution. The three
governing parties of the regions namely N.P.C in the North, the N.C.N.C.
East and A.G. in West all ensured western-style parliamentary
democracy. The N.P.C. and N.C.N.C. formed alliance with Dr. Nnamdi
Azikwe as Governor-General and Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa as Prime
Minister. The tension that had preceded independence seemed over as
Nigeria appeared in its first year of sovereign nationhood, a sea of
tranquility in reference to the situation in Congo20. In the early years
of independence, the constitution was able to contain the various
strains to which it was subjected. This is supported by one Nigeria
newspaper which put it succinctly, “Nigeria seemed to have perfected the
art of walking to the brook of disaster without falling in". However,
the complete breakdown of law and order in the western region in late
1965 led the military to take over the government and suspend every
democratic institution.
Many factors have been given,
including the historical, regional and ethnic differences that led to
the breakdown of the political order in Nigeria. First, by the end of
1965, the politicians had earned increased contempt for their corruption
and profligacy in dealing with Nigerians. Secondly, the gap between
wealthy and the growing wage earning closes grew rapidly greater during
the next first years. Thirdly, the growing discontent between Balewa and
the elite as regard the west. Fourthly, the continued policy by the
government to disregard the provision of the constitution and lastly the
census of 1952-3, had created a slight overall majority was, however,
the failure of the politicians to respect both the letter and spirit of
the constitution that led to chaos which precipitated the January 1966
coup. The coup of January set the road for another coup in July, 1966.
The coup in January was mainly seen as an Eastern coup by the North.
The North subsequently saw the unification of regional and federal
public services as policy to dominate by the Igbos. Also they saw the
killing of Northern military personnel as an attempt to dominate the
military. In July, Northern officers staged a coup in which Ironsi on a
visit to Ibadan was killed together with his host, Governor Fajuyi.
Finally the Army Chief of Staff, Lt Col. Yakubu Gowon a Northerner took
over as Head of State. The legitimacy of Gowon as Head of State caused
civil unrest leading to conflict and killing between the North and
Igbos. The continued rejection of Gowon by Lt. Col. Ojukwu led to chaos
that plugged into a thirty-month-long civil war, with the Igbos
declaring their Republic of Biafra.21
Conclusively, the
colonial rule in Nigeria set a standard that started in 1914. The
constitutional framework at bringing unity to Nigeria did not engender
peace in the State. The war that ensued in Nigeria has in the colonial
legacy which the master left in the hand of Nigerians the word is
independence.
END NOTES
1. A.H.M. Kirk-Green: Who coined the name Nigeria? West African, 22nd December 1956
2.
Prof. Thurstan Shaw field research in Nigerian Archaeology, Journal
Historical Society of Nigeria (JHSN) II, 41963 pp 449-64 provides a
survey of the state of archaeology research in Nigeria up to
Independence
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