THE MYTH OF RELIGIOUS WAR: THE VATICAN INVOLVEMENT AND NIGERIA’S DEFENSIVE DIPLOMACY DURING THE BIAFRAN WAR, 1967-1970

Abstract

The Nigerian civil war was caused by a number of factors ranging from politics to colonial legacies, as well as the fragile trust existing among the major regional and ethnic groups. All of these reached a crescendo after the coup and counter coup in 1966. The fact that the secessionist region was made up of predominantly Igbo Catholic Christians as opposed to the Muslim Hausa dominated Nigerian Sate also exacerbated the conflict. Indeed, the Biafrans made the most of this factor in selling the propaganda that the war was religious and that the Catholic Igbos were being persecuted by reason of their faith; a claim that won the sympathy of some foreign actors, including the Vatican. While the allegation of a religious war was unfounded, it calls into question how a non-material factor like religion could be so potent as to be a major determinant in influencing international actors. It was not until the religious element was decisively squashed that the Vatican involvement in the war waned, thus reinforcing the strength of faith in diplomacy. It is against this backdrop that the essay investigates the extent to which the Vatican bought Biafra’s religious war propaganda, how this influenced its participation, and the extent to which the Nigerian Military Government (FMG), as a diplomatic tactic, discredited the Pope and Vatican’s interpretation of the war as religious.