Anti-Igbo sentiment
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anti-Igbo sentiment refers to the debatable existence of hostility against Igbo people, their Igbo, or Igbo culture.
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[edit] Pre-Civil War sentiments
During the first few years of Nigeria's independence, the Igbo people enjoyed a reputation of affluence and multiregionalism, with Igbos having been employed by the colonial authorities in the public sector of other regions of the country, including Northern Region and Western Region. This aroused the envy of many in the populaces of these regions, who saw the Igbo as a disproportionately-favored ethnic group. This was further cemented by the short government of Gen. Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, whose military junta consisted mostly of Igbos 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 Igbos in riots 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.
