People should have equal opportunity to claim their rights because human rights principles apply to all persons equally. Therefore, ethnic inequality is a threat to human rights, which have adverse outcomes, including intergenerational trauma, degenerated cultural aggression, anger, and distrust, and a sense of powerlessness and helplessness (Johnston et al., 2009; Mushtaq & Fatima, 2016). In Nigeria, several ethnic inequalities exist across several dimensions, such as political offices at the federal executive branch of government, health care, education system, regional development, police roadblocks, airports, seaports, fair hearing in the law court, respect for human life, etc. In all these dimensions, South-eastern part of Nigeria (Biafra) has suffered the most injustice and violations of human rights due to ethnic inequalities in Nigeria (Ugorji, 2017)
Theretical Framework Shaping Actions Regarding Human Rights
Human rights are preserved and regulated in the domain of justice, which is a basic necessity for social coexistence, freedom, peace, and material and human development (Soderstrom et al., 2019). For instance, natural rights to life, property, and liberty are preserved by attributive justice; civil, political, social, cultural, and economic rights are regulated by distributive and social justice; and contractual rights are preserved by commutative justice to the human person (Gopakumar, 2012; Pazhyampallil, 2004). Consequently, the violation of human rights is a gross offense against justice, which results in the destruction of society’s physical, social, moral and spiritual being (Ul Haq & Dar, 2014).
Correspondingly theoretical frameworks on justice shape actions in relation to human rights. Equity theory is one of the major frameworks guiding distributive justice, which preserves and regulates several human rights, including civil, political, social, cultural, and economic rights (Kazemi & Tornblom, 2008). According to this theory paradigm, for fairness to prevail, outcomes must be proportional to contribution. In other words, people perceive fairness when the ratio of their inputs and outcomes stand in an obverse relation to the inputs and outcomes of referent or similar others. For instance, people will perceive inequity when their high outputs are rewarded with low payment while others whose outputs are low receive high payment (Kazemi & Tornblom, 2008)
Biafra and Ethnic Inequalities in Nigeria
In Nigeria, people from old South-east (Biafra) contribute most to the Nigerian economy but receive the least from the national purse (Ochinex, 2017). The entire crude oil sustaining the economy of Nigeria comes from the old South-eastern Nigeria. According to Ochinex (2017), Nigerians abroad remit billions of dollars to Nigeria annually, which contributes significantly to the national economy. Sixty percent of this remittance comes from 1gbos of South-eastern Nigeria. Similarly, those who do foreign business and import goods into the Nigerian market are mainly from South-east (Ochinex, 2017). There are several other ways South-easterners contribute to the economy of Nigeria far way beyond any other region in the country. Nollywood, through which Nigeria receives billions of dollars, is dominated by Igbos; a very high percentage of those who represent the country in sports is from the old South-east; four out of the six most industrialized cities in Nigeria are in the old South-east (Onitsha, Nnewi, Port Harcourt, and Aba); and 70% of the investments in Abuja and about 30-40% of those in Lagos are owned by Igbos (Ochinex, 2017). This is to mention a few.
Despite all these contributions to the Nigerian economy, the old South-eastern region (Biafra) receives the least from the national purse and suffers most injustice and human rights violations in terms of distributive, procedural, and social justice in Nigeria. For instance, in March 2020, the federal government of Nigeria allocated $0 to the present-day South-east zone in the distribution of a $22.7 billion loan to all regions of Nigeria (Iroanusi, 2020). Also, indigenes of the South-east region are the least employed in the federal political offices. Moreover, the Nigerian government has systematically underdeveloped the South-eastern part of Nigeria (Biafra land). Although more than 60% of Nigerians living outside the country come from South-east and more than 80% doing foreign businesses and importing goods into the country come from South-east too, the region has no working seaports, no embassy, and only two international airports in Enugu and Port Harcourt. Furthermore, the region has unimaginable bad roads but uncountable police checkpoints. The intention of Nigerian authorities for doing all this is to frustrate any economic growth in the region and to hold it down forever. To crown it all, Nigerian authorities, including security forces, have shown a total lack of respect for the life of people from Biafra. For instance, they kill unarmed people who identify themselves as pro-Biafrans without any provocation (Duggan & Busari, 2016; Ibekwe, 2016). In addition, they torture and give them degrading and inhuman treatments, imprison them unlawfully, and deny them a fair hearing in the law court.
The Impact of the Violation of the Fundament Human Rights of Biafrans on the Psyche of Biafrans
The extrajudicial killings that Nigerian security forces carried out on unarmed pro-Biafrans in 2016, the continual inhuman treatments on pro-Biafrans, current incessant killings of Biafrans by the same security forces and Fulani herders, and the criminal silence by Nigerian authorities (Duggan & Busari, 2016; Ibekwe, 2016) are all indications of ethnic inequalities concerning respect for human life in Nigeria. Some obvious psychological effects of these cruel and degrading treatments against Biafrans include ethnic distrust, aggression, anger, sadness, and hatred toward not only Nigerian authorities, but to everyone keeping quiet to such gross human rights violations. For instance, on August 17, 2019, at Nuremberg, Germany, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) gave the Nigerian Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, the beating of his life during the annual cultural festival of Ndigbo (Sunday, 2019). This action was a means of venting out their anger on authorities from Biafra land (old South-east region) that are keeping silent to the gross violation of human rights going on in south-eastern Nigeria.
Another effect of ethnic inequalities and human rights violations in Biafran land by the Nigerian government is unresolved intergenerational traumas (Ugorji, 2017; Otas, 2017). The traumas that go with the experience of human rights violations (e.g., extrajudicial killings, torture, and degrading treatments) can always create a deep wound in the psyche of the people, making it difficult to resolve in both individuals and communities. Although the violation of Biafran rights (e.g., extrajudicial killings and dehumanizing treatments) may cause individuals to suffer various forms of psychological disorders(e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, depression, and anxiety), it inevitably leads to unresolved ethnic and intergenerational traumas. In other words, the community also carries the trauma. Consequently, the trauma will always resurface in the future through human rights movements against breaches of injustice by the community members (Otas, 2017). The only way to resolve this intergenerational trauma is to give Biafrans the justice they have been demanding.
Conclusion
It is time to give justice to Biafrans. The Nigerian state has committed enough atrocities against Biafrans. The world can no longer pretend to be uninterested in the gross violation of human rights going in Biafra land by the Nigerian government. The United Nations takes a greater share of the blame for allowing these human rights violations to continue without giving justice to Biafrans. One thing is certain, agitations for the independence of the Biafran state will never stop unless justice is given to Biafrans.
References
Duggan, B., & Busari, S. (2016). Nigerian officers killed 150 peaceful protesters, Amnesty report claims. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/24/africa/nigeria-security-forces-biafra-protesters
Gopakumar, S. S. (2012). Human rights violations. International Research Journal of Commerce Arts and Science, 3(2), 882-887. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu
Kazemi, A., Tornblom, K. (2008). Social psychology of justice: Origins, central issues, recent developments, and future directions. Nordic Psychology, 60(3), 209-234. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases
Pazhayampallil, T. (2004). Pastoral guide: Fundamental theology and virtues (4th ed.). New Delhi: Rekha Printers Private Ltd.
Soderstrom, K., Hagenaars, P., Wainwright, T., & Wagner, U. (2019). Human rights matter to psychology: Psychological matters to human rights. European Psychologist, 24(2), 99-101. doi:10.1027/1016-9040/a000365
Ul Haq, I., & Dar, M A. (2014). Human rights violation in Kashmir. European Academic Research, 2(7), 9230-9242. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/12938405/Human_Rights_Violations_in_Kashmir
Social Change 