ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the issues that led to the Nigerian Civil War, which are relevant to the politics of the demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) that followed the cessation of conflict in the country. It discusses the inherited constraints bequeathed by colonialism and how these became factors in understanding the outbreak of the civil war and looks at the role of ethnicity in the civil war. The chapter focuses on the series of coups and counter-coups that preceded the war, discusses on the role of socio-economic factors and the politics of natural resource control in the war. It also discusses on the killing of the Igbo population in the North and how this became an issue in the civil war. Socio-cultural differences in the Nigerian society were reinforced by a series of political and economic developments, and all created a situation or state of political instability in the country.
