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Some say the main causes of the Nigerian civil war, or Biafran war, were:

1] The tribal and regional tensions between the three main tribes in Nigeria: Hausa [north], Igbo [east] and Yoruba [west]

2] Britains's wanting to maintain control over their interests in Nigeria during and dangerous time

3] The discovery of oil in the south-eastern region of Nigeria and their wanting to seceed in order to maintain control over their reserves - lest the Hausa's who controlled the central gov. at the time took control of it and the revenue gained

4] The political crises leading up to the war [also linking in and being exaserbated by the tribal tensions]: census 1963-4, electoral fraud, military coup, counter coup, secession of Biafra.

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7y ago
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14y ago

The Nigerian civil war was fought between 1967 t0 1970. It was the result of deep-rooted tribal, geographic and religious divisions in the society. It took roots from the efforts made by the British to force groups which had nothing in common, no similar interests but rather with a history of hostilities into a nation. The inability of the newly created states to produce leaders with a national vision to make sacrifices and compromises for the sake of peace and national unity.
The causes of of the Nigerian civil war could be grouped into economic, political and social.

Economic: Economic problems generated by the oil wealth. Before the discovery of oil in the east, the nation' revenue had relied heavily on the groundnuts from the north. The the revenue was largely from the north, it was shared equally among all the regions.
In addition, the north had political control. However, oil discovery in the east changed things, due to economic focus shifted to the east. Due to this, the east also demanded for some political influence which the north was greatly against. This was definitely a recipe for war.

Political: Failure of factions to compromise and cooperate to work together. Neither of the prime ministers wanted to compromise their deals to work together for a united Nigeria. Also the fact that the north received more revenue and opportunities thought the east produced bulk of the revenue. The crisis in the west that came due to the fact that the elections that were held, were rigged and all laws were broken. Also, in 1966, a group of young staff members of the army under the leadership of Ironsi, staged a coup because they felt all the top nations politicians and leaders had let Nigeria down. They killed all top politicians and at the end made Ironsi the leader. Unfortunately for them, the north retaliated by opening a huge massacre of all igbos and also killed Ironsi and made Gowon the head.
The fleeing of the igbos during the massacre made them end up in the east. This again, made Ojukwu, the leader of the east ask for more demands as there was so much pressure on their facilities. But the north disagreed and this time the east decided that they were going to break themselves off Nigeria and take the oil with them. With this, the north couldn't allow as the oil gave in lots of revenue.


Social: this was basically a combination of the different tribal groups put together and couldn't can to compromise together to make decisions leading to the small quarrels and arguments between them.

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12y ago

its not ended yet because the hausa are still killing the igbo and the yoruba tribe,they still feel insecured and disguise under the shadow of religion(Muslim) and this is a know fact,the huasa belive they are born to rule Nigeria,so anytime things are not in there favour they then to start killing other tribe,this mentality is incorcated by the british immedaitely after Nigerian gain independent from the british,this is a way of still checking on nigeria.

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Q: How did the Civil war in Nigeria end?
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