The Nigeria Civil War: A Historical Analysis 1967-1970

Abstract

The years 1967-1970 remained a major landmark in the history of Nigeria as it marked the period the nation (young) witnessed catastrophic unrest which shook its fabrics to its foundations. Lives and properties of no accurate count were lost, and trust and confidence were broken. National u, therefore, fore has come under serious threat. The major question for this research is to interpret the historical event within the context of the post-conflict period Nigerian environment. Most of the writings on the Nigerian civil war fail to analyze the war and its effects on contemporary Nigerian politics. Therefore, the research aims at; a contextual historical analysis of the Nigerian civil war in view of contemporary Nigeria’s political stability. The research is designed as a pure qualitative work and data is obtained through both primary and secondary sources. The face-face oral interview is conducted among five elders who participated/witnessed the war (Creswell, 2015; Greg, 2014), the information gathered was manually corroborated with the available primary source materials in archives and secondary works found in both hard copy prints namely; textbooks, journals, magazines, and audio-visual programs. The findings show that since the war unity of the country has remained more fragile and mutual distrust exists among sections of the country. The significance of the research lay in understanding contemporary Nigerian politics and its relationship with the civil war. It is vital to politicians and administrators in addition to being a contribution to lite the maturity of the Nigerian civil war.