Anti-Igbo sentiment
1. Pre-civil war sentiments
Anti-Igbo sentiment (also known as Igbophobia) encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards the Igbo people. The Igbo people make up all of south-eastern Nigeria and a part of south-south Nigeria’s geopolitical zones, and some part of Benue state and Kogi State. Igbophobia is observable in critical and hostile behaviour such as political and religious discrimination and violence towards the Igbo.
The emergence of Anti Igbo sentiment was catalyzed by the introduction of Western education. During the early stages of British colonialism, the Yoruba ethnic group became the first to be introduced to Western education, followed closely by the Igbo people. In contrast, the Northern authorities resisted the efforts of colonial masters/Christian missionaries to educate their populace, leading to a significant deficit in educational opportunities. Consequently, this hindered their access to employment in the evolving colonial Nigeria, where Western education was a prerequisite for positions in modern industrial, commercial, and governmental sectors controlled by the British.
Despite being the second-largest ethnic group to embrace Western education, the Igbo people swiftly embraced its benefits, leveraging it as a means to ascend the social hierarchy. This proactive engagement provided them with avenues for employment in colonial Nigeria, leading to their dominance in critical sectors such as the military, clerical roles, and semi-skilled positions within the postal services, banking institutions, and railway services, particularly in regions like northern Nigeria, where local populations lacked the educational qualifications to fulfill the demand for skilled labor. As a result of this, the Igbo people increasingly came to be perceived as a disproportionately-favored ethnic group with affluence and multi-regionalistic opportunities due to the employment of the Igbo within colonial Nigeria by the colonial authorities and the prominence of them in the public sector in regions throughout the country. This situation aroused the ire of others toward the Igbo. Igbo peoples accustomation to travelling all over the country which helped in leading them to success in business and commerce also aroused anti-Igbo sentiments in southern Cameroon and played a part in southern Cameroon joining Cameroon.
While it’s worth noting that igbophobia may have exerted certain influence on southern Cameroon’s choice to join Cameroon the animosity toward Igbos appeared not to have been a significant issue as during the Bamiléké rebellion in Cameroon Igbo civil servants assisted the rebels by providing care and supplies at the border. Anti-Igbo sentiments were exacerbated by the 1966 Nigerian coup d’état which was seen as an eastern Igbo-led coup that resulted in the deaths of several prominent Nigerian political figures, including Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Premier of the Northern Region Sir Ahmadu Bello, Premier of the Western Region Samuel Akintola, and several military officers. This event led to a counter-coup which Northerners primarily led. It was followed by the massacre of thousands of Igbos in pogroms which occurred in the Northern region, an event which drove millions of Igbos back to their homeland in Eastern Nigeria; ethnic relations rapidly deteriorated, and a separate republic of Biafra was declared in 1967, leading to the Biafran War.
2. Anti-Igbo pogrom
The 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom was a series of massacres that were directed at Igbo and other people of southern Nigerian origin who were living in northern Nigeria. The massacres started in May 1966, and they reached a peak on September 1966. During this period, Igbo civilians were murdered throughout northern Nigeria by northern soldiers and civilians who sought revenge for the 1966 Nigerian coup d’état, which was carried out by six Majors from Nigeria Army and resulted in the deaths of 11 Nigerian politicians and army officers. These events led to the Nigerian countercoup, and they eventually led to the secession of the eastern Nigerian region and the declaration of the Republic of Biafra, which ultimately led to the Nigeria-Biafra war. The 1966 massacres of Igbo people have been described as a holocaust by some authors, and they have variously been described as riots, pogroms or genocide.
Stay tuned, as we are going to cover topics from number 3 to 11 under Igbo sentiment, also known as Igbophobia.
3.The coup and the focal point of hatred
4.Nigerian Civil War
5. Outside Nigeria
6. Anti-Igbo Sentiments on the internet
7. Igbophobia and APC
8. Anti-Igbo Sentiments today
9.Anti-Igbo sentiments in Nigerian general and gubernatorial elections
10. Justifications for Hatred
11. After-effects and the aftermath of the 2023 elections.
