ABSTRACT

The challenges facing the Igbo race today, especially within the Nigerian state, have historical and economic foundations, explanations and interpretations. Challenges have resulted in the resurgence of the desire and demand for Biafra as an exit option from Nigeria. This essay examines these challenges together with the plausibility and feasibility of the ‘exit’option. It argues that against the backdrop of the historical fact that Ndigbo were the first occupant of the Nigerian territorial space as well as their ubiquitous economic investments all over Nigeria, the people need to first take back the Nigerian state. This essay posits that it is in taking back the Nigerian state that Ndigbo can, if necessary, carry out a planned and deliberately conscious Biafran exit. Employing historical, analytic and critical methodologies the paper tackles the difficulty of tracing the origin of the Igbo race as well as their historical and economic place in Nigeria. The paper further discusses the lack of political power as the missing link responsible for the woes of Ndigbo in Nigeria. It then concludes by examining the philosophy of rootology and the political, legal and diplomatic strategies of the Movement of Biafrans in Nigeria (MOBIN) as the best way to begin the process of Igbo restoration and revival.