Agitations for Self-Determination in Southeast, Nigeria: Causes, Impact and Response

People of the southeast, Nigeria had cordial relationship with the rest of the country prior to January 15, 1966 coup which was misconstrued as Igbo agenda together with General Aguiyi Ironsi’s (the then Head of State) failure to execute the coup plotters who lopsidedly killed Northern leaders. This resulted in the July 29, 1966 counter coup which led to radical turn of events for the Southeasterners following an eventual pogrom against them. Over two hundred people of southeast origin were killed in one night in Lagos. Women and children were also killed in the North. The high incidence of massacre made Southeasterners to seek self-determination as their lives and properties appeared unprotected by the Federal government, hence the Nigerian civil war. After the war, government formulated policies that impoverished Southeasterners, ranging from abandoned property to twenty pounds policy and indigenization decree. These policies fueled some feelings of exclusion and marginalization amongst them and have continued to form the basis of their suspicion coupled with herdsmen’s nefarious activities which have contributed to renewed agitations for self-determination. Using secondary data derived from scholarly publications, the study adopted social contract theory as the theoretical thrust of the paper to ascertain the causes of continuous agitations for self-determination in southeast, Nigeria. The remote and immediate causes of the agitations were descriptively discussed and analyzed. It was objectively deduced that people of the Southeast are marginalized and excluded in certain critical areas of governance. The study recommended all-inclusiveness among others as panaceas to halt further escalation of agitations.