Greed Theory And Civil War

In order to understand the applicability of the civil war theories to the Biafran Secession and Civil war, it is first important to understand that all three in some ways have some sort ability to explain what happened. Thusly, the first theory to be tested is the greed theory which finds great explanatory power in relation to the issue of oil and oil rights that surrounded the conflict. Kirk Greene (1975) argues that the issuing surrounding oil discovered in the south of Nigeria should be viewed as the major catalyst for the conflict that followed. Greene specifically points to how the nation that would become Biafra had major concerns about the North using the government to gain access to oil fields. That concern or fear stemmed from the …show more content…
In short, it must be argued that the grievance theory is the theory that best explains the incidence of the Nigerian Civil war. To start with looking at why the other two fall short, opportunity did not seem to big of a factor and to say that motivations did not play a role in the succession would be ignoring a huge reason the conflict began. Additionally, a lot of the government turmoil that occurred was in large parts due to ethnic tensions and divides which ties it more into grievance theory. While for greed theory, it is a theory that has some very solid applicable specifically with the oil crisis that seemed to be one of biggest catalyst of the conflict. Yet like with opportunity, the common thread in the oil crisis is ethnic tensions and concerns about inequality developing between the groups. For the Igbo had such a strong reaction to the Northern attempts to secure the Southern oil fields because in a sense it would be an encroachment into an area that was traditionally Igbo. Nigeria lacked a common sense of nationalism and was instead divided to the extent that ethnic groups seems to look more for one another than the general good of Nigeria. That argument both dismisses the greed theory as well as heightened grievance theory to the position of the theory with the most explanatory power. The common thread of Nigeria in its history is the presence of ethnic tensions and divides because they are not only so clear and present with issues over ethnicity and religion but are also geographic. That dividing of groups leads to a greater sense of ethnic loyalty than nationality which in turn leads to a desire to protect one's ethnicity over one’s nation. That idea was present during the Biafran Secession and is a concept that finds great applicability in relation to grievance theory as the theory argues that these sort