more harm than good

Nigeria: Has Biafra’s lockdown spun out of control?

By Dele Yusuf

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Posted on September 21, 2021 14:55

Nigeria Separatist Movement © Members of the Biafran separatist movement gather during an event in Umuahia, Nigeria, on 28 May 2017 (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi, File)
Members of the Biafran separatist movement gather during an event in Umuahia, Nigeria, on 28 May 2017 (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi, File)

A series of lockdowns in Nigeria’s southeast caused by the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (IBOB) sit-at-home directives are causing unprecedented hardship and losses never seen since the time of the civil war. There is even a bigger challenge: the situation seems to be out of control, for both the IPOB and governors across the five states in the region.

Nigeria’s southeast, one of the most economically disadvantaged geopolitical zones in the country, is bleeding as a result of self-immolation blamed on the IPOB, which is championing the cause for the creation of a Biafran nation made up of the Igbos, Nigeria’s third-largest ethnic group.

Across southeast Nigeria and other parts of the West African country where the Igbos reside, there is a common joke that only on his wedding day will an Igbo man not open his shop for business. Even on such special days, he might stop over at his shop on his way home from the wedding to attend to customers, the first set of people after his heart and pocket.

However, that was under normal circumstances. Nowadays, things have gone from bad to worse, with businesses closing more often than not because of frequent directives by the IPOB asking people to stay home.

The sit-at-home order

On 30 July, IPOB

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