The Biafran Self-Determination Question: Challenges and Prospects

The Nigerian civil war and Biafra’s failed attempt to secede from Nigeria raised a series of questions about the nature and scope of the right to self-determination in formerly colonised states. The question which this paper focuses on is whether the right to self-determination should always amount to a right to secession. Through a critical analysis of Biafran agitations for statehood during the Nigerian civil war and in recent times, this paper makes the case for a framework through which self-determination claims can be addressed within existing territorial arrangements. The paper argues that, in the case of Biafra, forms of internal self-determination such as autonomy may address the agitations and needs of the people better than secession. Hence, international lawyers, and the international community as a whole, should give more attention to internal forms of self-determination.