Contextualizing the International Dimensions of the Nigerian Civil War, 1967-1970
Dr. M.S. Audu, Osuala, Uzoma S.; Ibrahim, Baba Isaac

Abstract
War is a phenomenon which has ravaged human society. At anytime war erupts, efforts are geared towards stemming it. Attempts to forestall such occurrence could be internally induced or externally motivated. In 1967, Nigeria was embroiled in over two and half year’s war. The civil war in the country was the offshoot of the myriad of problems which had confronted the nation in the early 1960s. It ranged from census crises, ethnic politics, federal election crises, electoral manipulations to economic and political sleaze. The consequence ‒ was the Civil War which began in 1967. The war resulted in intervention from ‘outside’. However, the involvement of international actors had been said to have been dictated by economic as well as political reasons. Thus, the protracted war that lasted for almost three years. The discourse, therefore, revisits, re-examines and reflects the international dimensions to the Nigerian Civil War. It posited that the motives for intervention was dictated by economic neo-imperialism and therefore, Eurocentric. The paper submits and recommends that Nigeria and Africa’s problems could only be solved from within through devoted leaders rather than leaders who enslave themselves to the West.

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