Nigerian Civil War

===Persecution of Igbo===
After the January coup, Igbos in the North were accused of taunting their hosts on the loss of their leaders. A popular example was Celestine Ukwu, a popular Igbo musician, who released a song titled "Ewu Ne Ba Akwa" (Goats Are Crying) apparently mocking the late [[Ahmadu Bello]]. These provocations were so pervasive that they warranted the promulgation of Decree 44 of 1966 banning them by the military government.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Uko |first=Ndaeyo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Abm-v6wGWOQC&q=aguiyi+ironsi&pg=PA75 |title=Romancing the Gun: The Press as Promoter of Military Rule |date=2004 |publisher=Africa World Press |isbn=978-1-59221-189-0 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-04-02 |title=DEFAMATORY AND OFFENSIVE PUBLICATIONS ACT 1966 |url=https://lawcarenigeria.com/defamatory-and-offensive-publications-act-1966/ |access-date=2023-10-09 |website=LawCareNigeria |language=en-US}}</ref>

The first president of Nigeria [[Nnamdi Azikiwe]] who was away during the first coup noted:<blockquote>Some Ibo elements, who were domiciled in Northern Nigeria taunted northerners by defaming their leaders through means of records or songs or pictures. They also published pamphlets and postcards, which displayed a peculiar representation of certain northerners, living or dead, in a manner likely to provoke disaffection.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Azikiwe |first=Nnamdi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lq4MAQAAIAAJ |title=Origins of the Nigerian Civil War |date=1969 |publisher=Nigerian National Press |language=en}}</ref></blockquote>From June through October 1966, [[1966 anti-Igbo pogrom|pogroms in the North]] killed an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 Igbo, half of them children, and caused more than a million to two million to flee to the Eastern Region.<ref>Heerten & Moses, ''The Nigeria–Biafra War'' (2014), p. 173. "Repeated outbursts of violence between June and October 1966 peaked in massacres against Igbos living in the ''Sabon Gari'', the 'foreigners' quarters' of northern Nigerian towns. According to estimates, these riots claimed the lives of tens of thousands. This violence drove a stream of more than a million refugees to the Eastern Region, the 'homeland' of the Igbos' diasporic community."</ref> 29 September 1966 became known as 'Black Thursday', as it was considered the worst day of the massacres.<ref>Levey, "Israel, Nigeria and the Biafra Civil War" (2014), p. 266. "Between May and September 1966, northerners murdered between 80,000 and 100,000 Igbos and other easterners resident in the Northern Region. The violence reached a climax with the massacres of 29 September 1966 ('Black Thursday'). Ojukwu had to deal with an influx to the east of between 700,000 and two million refugees. He responded by expelling thousands of non-easterners from the Eastern Region."</ref><ref>Chinua Achebe. ''There Was a Country'' (2012). New York: The Penguin Press. pp. 80–83, 122</ref>

Ethnomusicologist Charles Keil, who was visiting Nigeria in 1966, recounted:

<blockquote>The pogroms I witnessed in [[Makurdi]], Nigeria (late Sept. 1966) were foreshadowed by months of intensive anti-Igbo and anti-Eastern conversations among Tiv, Idoma, Hausa and other Northerners resident in Makurdi, and, fitting a pattern replicated in city after city, the massacres were led by the Nigerian army. Before, during and after the slaughter, Col. Gowon could be heard over the radio issuing 'guarantees of safety' to all Easterners, all citizens of Nigeria, but the intent of the soldiers, the only power that counts in Nigeria now or then, was painfully clear. After counting the disemboweled bodies along the Makurdi road I was escorted back to the city by soldiers who apologised for the stench and explained politely that they were doing me and the world a great favor by eliminating Igbos.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Postcolonial Conflict and the Question of Genocide: The Nigeria-Biafra War 1967 – 1970|last1=Moses|first1=A. Dirk|last2=Heerten|first2=Lasse|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2018|isbn=9780415347587|location=New York|pages=25}}</ref></blockquote>Professor of History [[Murray Last]], who was in Zaria city on the day after the first coup, describes his experience on that day: <blockquote>And the day after the coup – January 16th 1966 – there was initially so much open relief on the ABU campus that it shocked me. It was only later, when I was living within Zaria city (at Babban Dodo), that I encountered the anger at the way Igbo traders (and journalists) were mocking their Hausa fellow traders in Zaria’s Sabon Gari over the death of their ‘father’, and were pushing aside various motorpark workers elsewhere, telling the Hausa that the rules had now all changed and it was the Hausa who were now the underlings in market or motorpark.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Olorunyomi |first=Ladi |date=November 22, 2021 |title=INTERVIEW: Why every Nigerian should be proud of the Sokoto Caliphate — Prof Murray Last |url=https://www.premiumtimesng.com/features-and-interviews/496263-interview-why-every-nigerian-should-be-proud-of-the-sokoto-caliphate-prof-murray-last.html?tztc=1 |access-date=2023-03-31 |website=www.premiumtimesng.com}}</ref></blockquote>The Federal Military Government also laid the groundwork for the economic blockade of the Eastern Region which went into full effect in 1967.<ref name="Stevenson2014pages314to315">Stevenson, ''Capitol Gains'' (2014), pp. 314–315. "In fact, the Federation's first response to Biafran secession was to deepen the blockade to include 'a blockade of the East's air and sea ports, a ban on foreign currency transactions, and a halt to all incoming post and telecommunications.' The Federation implemented its blockade so quickly during the war because it was a continuation of the policy from the year before."</ref>