A NIGERIAN writer has called for a Scottish-style referendum on independence for Biafra.

The demand has been made by Hussaid Obaro on the naij.com website, who says it would help quell recent unrest in Nigeria, which has sprung up over calls for an independent Biafran nation.

“The right to self-determination, like other rights and fundamental freedom, are non-negotiable,” wrote Obaro. “Nations that genuinely desire to maintain unity should invest in justice and equality, shared prosperity, inclusion and social justice, and not force people to live together through the use of guns and ammunition.

“The British-Scotland democratic referendum has provided a formidable template and an ample example for everyone to emulate. Rather than engage in needless wars and crises that will end in massacre, like what transpired in 1967, the President Buhari-led government needs to institute a democratic referendum.

“If a Biafra referendum got an overwhelming Yes vote, the Nigerian government should graciously allow them to go peacefully and prevent a repeat of the 1967 massacre. War is not picnic, it should be avoided by any sane people.”

WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING?

THE call for a Scottish-style referendum comes amid threats from independence campaigners that they will make Nigeria “ungovernable” if the government refuses to let the people vote on the issue.

The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) said last week that it would instigate strikes and civil disobedience if the government does not agree to a referendum.

“We shall use everything at our disposal to fight the Nigerian government, especially through civil disobedience,” said Samuel Edeso, of MASSOB. “We are going to call for ‘sit at home’ in all Biafran land and Lagos.”

He added that the group also aims to take former president Olusegun Obasanjo to the International Criminal Court over “atrocities” committed against the people of Biafra.

Last week, a merchant ship was hijacked in an attempt to force the Government to release independence campaigner Nnamdi Kanu, a dual Nigerian and British citizen who was running the illegal Radio Biafra from his home in London’s Peckham. Alleged to have spurred the Igbo community to take part in violent pro-independence protests, he was arrested in October during a visit to Nairobi. The charges were dropped in December, but he remains in detention, and concerns about his treatment have been raised by his British MP Harriet Harman.

“The Government sees him as a vocal figure in the [Biafran independence] movement, so there’s a feeling that he is being made an example,” Nigerian journalist Lammy Ughebe said.

WHAT CAUSED THE PROBLEMS?

THE present unrest can be traced back to British colonial strategy, which lumped large areas of the country together without regard for linguistic, religious or ethnic differences.

At the start of the 20th century, Britain carved out an area of West Africa and called it Nigeria. It contained hundreds of ethnic groups, although the main ones were the Yoruba with 75 per cent of the population in the south west, the Igbo with 60-70 per cent of the population in the south east and the Hausa-Fulani with about 65 per cent of the people in the north.

By mid-century, the Igbo and Yoruba were at the forefront of the battle for independence but wanted the country to be divided into several small states so that the mainly Muslim north did not dominate the country. The northern people only agreed to co-operate, however, if Nigeria was divided into three regions, with the north holding the majority in the federal government.

WHEN DID THE WAR START?

BY 1960, when Nigeria gained independence, there was a population of 60 million, with the north having a slightly higher share of the population than the other two combined. As a result, the north was given the majority of the seats in the federal government set up by the colonial authorities. This caused tension from the beginning and six years later, amid claims of corruption and electoral rigging, there was a military coup that was seen as an Igbo attempt to gain power. A counter-coup succeeded and persecution of Igbos followed, with tens of thousands massacred.

This led General Emeka Ojukwu to declare independence in May 1967 for the Igbo-dominated south east of the country.

A blockade against the new Republic of Biafra was begun, however, by the federal military government, supported by the British government, anxious to protect its oil interests in the region. The British backing was a decisive factor in Biafra’s eventual defeat.

WHY DID THEY LOSE?

WHAT followed was described as genocide by many. The blockade led to a severe famine, which appeared to be a deliberate war strategy.

As many as three million civilians may have died from disease and starvation during the two-and-a-half-year war. The scale of suffering was so great that it could not be ignored by the Western media, which published and broadcast searing pictures of babies with distended bellies so close to death they were beyond crying.

The pictures shocked nations around the globe but while civilians raised money for aid, governments – particularly the British, the Soviet Union and the US – continued to supply weapons to the federal military government.

The Biafran resistance collapsed in the early days of 1970. Since then, government policies have been seen as blatant discrimination against the Igbo people, and the populations in the oil producing areas, which includes the south east, have maintained they have been denied any benefit.

Nigerian writer Chibundu Onuzo is among those calling for the government to address not only what happened in the past but what is happening now.

“Every nation has a consensus account on the defining moments of its past, be it the Holocaust or the battle of Hastings,” she said. “It is these accounts that build national identity.