Abstract:
This study is conducted on the premise of United Nations declaration on the Rights of the indigenous People and Biafra Agitation in Nigeria. The clamor for the establishment of a Biafran state has been on for over five decades now; these agitations are born out of the purported recalcitrant and unremorseful stance taken by the Nigeria government in addressing the needs of the Igbo populace since after the civil war. Also, the United Nations declaration on the rights to self-determinism has further provided a legal platform for the Biafran agitation and struggle. On that basis this study is predicated on unraveling the nexus between the U.N declaration on the right to self-determinism and the Biafran agitation. In actualizing that feat, the study tries to ascertain how the marginalization of the Igbos led to the rise in the incidence of pro-Biafran agitators and also to unearth how the U.N declaration on the rights to self-determinism has covertly led to recent Biafran agitation. The is guided by the Relative Deprivation Theory as its framework of analysis. The documentary method was used to collect data from secondary sources and the data were analyzed using content analysis. The findings were analyzed through qualitative descriptive method, which revealed that the marginalization of the Igbo’s led to continuous Pro-Biafra protests in Nigeria, and the U.N declaration on the right to self-determination is latently providing a platform for the continuous Biafran agitations in Nigeria. Based on our findings, the study recommended that complete restructuring of the Nigerian federal system will quell the Biafran agitations as it will holistically address to the roots the militating factors to the Biafran agitations. Furthermore, restructuring will allow each zone to develop individually without prejudice to the center.
