Biafran ghosts: the MASSOB ethnic militia and Nigeria's democratisation process

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Title:	Biafran ghosts: the MASSOB ethnic militia and Nigeria's democratisation process
Author:	Okonta, Ike
Year:	2012
Issue:	73
Pages:	64
Language:	English
Series:	Discussion paper (ISSN 1104-8417)
City of publisher:	Uppsala
Publisher:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
ISBN:	9789171067166
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	Igbo ethnicity militias democratization
External link:	http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:nai:diva-1553
Abstract:	The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) is a powerful ethnic militia that emerged in the Igbo region of Nigeria in 1999. MASSOB's stated goal is the peaceful dissolution of Nigeria and the re-emergence of a new sovereign State in the eastern part of the country to be known as the 'United States of Biafra'. This paper examines the circumstances of MASSOB's emergence in a period of political liberalization and considerable uncertainty as the armed forces began to prepare to relinquish their grip on power, and the specific ways the actions of the promoters of this ethnic militia have shaped Nigeria's still unfolding democratization process since 1999. [ASC Leiden abstract]