Contending Issues in the Niger Delta Crisis of Nigeria - Journal of ...

Dr. Esekumemu V. Clark
failed to pay critical attention to their ethnic minorities’ demands for
the creation of more regions in the North and East, respectively. In
fact, however, the creation of more states became possible only when
the military intervened in politics on 15 January 1966. As the
country was heading towards a civil war in 1967, General Gowon
decided to create 12 states out of the former Northern, Eastern and
Western regions. His strategy was to weaken the Ojukwu regime
based in Enugu in its power struggle with the federal regime
strengthening his support base in the rest of the federation.
Certainly, the inability of the political leadership in the First
Republic to apparently analyse and adopt appropriate steps to resolve
a myriad of problems such as the ethnic minority fears, the 1964
workers’ strike, the general elections of 1964, and the AG leadership
crisis from 1962, all lead the country into political instability and
abyss (see Clark 1991). To take one example, the unsettled AG crisis
led to the imprisonment of chief Awolowo in 1963 and subsequently to
the split of the AG under Awolowo’s supporters and the followers of
chief Akintola, the Western region’s premier. The final result on the
crisis was to hold Western regional election to settle the issues of the
regional primership between the AG led by Awolowo’s followers and
the NNDP founded by the incumbent premier Akintola in 1965. The
inconclusive elections, which some commentators claim was rigged by
the NNDP, led to civil-strife. More than 665 people were killed, and
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