Anti-Igbo sentiment

Anti-Igbo sentiment refers to the existence of hostility against Igbo people, or their culture.

Pre-Civil War sentiments

During the beginning years of Nigeria's colonial independence, the Igbo people increasingly were perceived as a disproportionately-favored ethnic group with affluence and multi-regionalistic opportunity because the Igbo had been employed within the colony by the colonial authorities and in the public sector in regions throughout Nigeria. This aroused the ire of others toward the Igbo.^[1]

This was emphasized by the short-lived government of Gen. Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, whose military junta consisted mostly of Igbo and who abolished the federated regions; this led to his assassination in a counter-coup led primarily by Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba participants. It was followed by the massacre of thousands of Igbo in pogroms in the two aforementioned regions, which drove millions of Igbos to their homeland in Eastern Region; ethnic relations deteriorated rapidly, and a separate republic of Biafra was declared in 1967, leading to the Nigerian Civil War.^[1]

See also

• Radio Nigeria Kaduna

References

External links

• Why Obasanjo and his cronies will regret their anti-Igbo instigations
• Reuben Abati and other anti-Igbo bigots in Nigeria