Self determination is in the air. We began last week with a Kurdish referendum in Iraq, and we ended it with a raucous Catalan referendum in Spain; neither may amount to much, at least in the short term. But hope is a hard thing to extinguish, as "separatist" movements around the world can tell you. Here, 3 others holding out hope in 2017:
Biafra
A country of 250+ ethnic groups, Nigeria declared independence from Britain in 1960, but a couple of military coups in 1966 stoked underlying ethnic tensions. In 1967, southern groups (led by the Igbo people, one of Nigeria’s three major ethnic groupings) declared the independent Republic of Biafra in Nigeria’s south. Nigeria refused to recognize the breakaway state, and a 3-year civil war ensued. All told, more than 1 million people lost their lives, many due to starvation. Biafra surrendered in 1970.
But defeating a secession movement on the battlefield is a far cry from defeating its spirit — and nearly half a century later, the dream of Biafra remains alive. These and other nationalist currents continue to make Nigerian politics choppy, as does a president whose frail health has the country continuously on edge.
Southern leaders have rejected secession calls as impractical. But the movement for Biafran statehood is still considered enough of a threat that the Nigerian military declared the Biafra separatist movement a terrorist group just a few weeks ago—harkening back to a simpler time when just wanting a homeland of one’s own was enough to be labeled a terrorist.
Flanders
Belgium’s largest political party—the center-right New Flemish Alliance—is actually a secessionist movement, highlighting just how fragmented Belgian politics really is. Belgium is divided into three: Flanders in the north (bordering the Netherlands, predominantly Dutch-speaking), Wallonia to the south (bordering France, predominantly French-speaking), and the Brussels-Capital Region in the relative middle. Modern day Belgium has its roots in 1830, when France supported a brewing rebellion in the Southern Netherlands. Wallonia was the favored region then; today, power has shifted to Flanders and the 60 percent of the country’s Dutch speakers.
In addition to language and culture, economic inequality in recent years has widened the divide. While Wallonia’s per capita GDP is only 88 percent of the EU average (2011 figures, purchasing power standard), Flanders’ GDP per capita is 120 percent above (2014 figures, purchasing power standard)—a sticking point for Flemish residents who see their money being sent to parts of the country that literally speak a different language. For now, the Flemish independence movement has been slow and plodding by design; when the time comes for a referendum—which would be the first on Flemish independence—that strategy may make all the difference.
Donesk and Luhansk
feels a lifetime ago since Vladimir Putin’s top worry was Ukraine moving too far West; it was actually 2013.
To recap: pro-Russia Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych rejected a deal to strengthen Ukraine’s integration with the EU, touching off violent protests in Ukraine. Those protests eventually ran him out of the country, and an enraged Putin invaded Crimea in response. But to really paralyze Ukraine’s movement toward the West, seizing Crimea wasn’t enough; he needed to sow discord from within the country, which is why he stoked the pro-Russian independence movements in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Nigeria...a country built on a very fraudulent and weak foundation which is bound to collapse like a,pack of cards in the not-so-distant future....Tick-tock goes the clock.

pussyeater:

Do you need money to buy sense?

All the senses you have bought so far failed to give you the needed minimal human IQ...Go for a refund cos you clearly wasted your time and money

Ngokafor:



All the senses you have bought so far failed to give you the needed minimal human IQ...Go for a refund cos you clearly wasted your time and money

Simple question you can't answer. Flat head!

Ngokafor:


Nigeria...a country built on a very fraudulent and weak foundation which is bound to collapse like a,pack of cards in the not-so-distant future....Tick-tock goes the clock.

Where is Nnamdiot Cownu to come and collapse am?

The mind is first
Mental slavery

Zoogeria can not stop Biafra!!! The Sun has risen never to set again

.

OP , take off your number one cos it is acerbic, driven by lies, hatred against others- it's useless.

ofcourse a house with weak pillars will certainly collapse when least expected and Nigeria is that house. it does not matter how long we paper the cracks it will certainly fall. to be on the safe side, nigeria MUST bring d pillars down and rebuild it before it falls on all and sundry

Ngokafor:


Nigeria...a country built on a very fraudulent and weak foundation which is bound to collapse like a,pack of cards in the not-so-distant future....Tick-tock goes the clock.

go and get married, if you can't, get a boyfriend.

AlwaysUltraPad:
go and get married, if you can't, get a boyfriend.

or get dicked

AlwaysUltraPad:
OP , take off your number one cos it is acerbic, driven by lies, hatred against others- it's useless.

whether it's driven by lies and hatred or not,I really wish the 5 south eastern state can be allowed to have a referendum.

Ngokafor:


Nigeria...a country built on a very fraudulent and weak foundation which is bound to collapse like a,pack of cards in the not-so-distant future....Tick-tock goes the clock.

i think thats the reason why you are still single at your old age, stilll very poor, not fulfilling your potentials and so on...all your mates are doing great things in and outside Nigeria, your own is to be grumbling. Get a life.

pussyeater:

Do you need money to buy sense?

kn23h:


Where is Nnamdiot Cownu to come and collapse am?

cosby02:

i think thats the reason why you are still single at your old age, stilll very poor, not fulfilling your potentials and so on...all your mates are doing great things in and outside Nigeria, your own is to be grumbling. Get a life.

Truth hurts, much?

Fulmigati:

Truth hurts, much?

You should tell us what is hurting you.

We are getting there.

I'm a Biafran.

pussyeater:

Simple question you can't answer. Flat head!

No wonder you re a pussyeater, I guess that's the only work afonjas are good at. You better go bk to primary School to improve your IQ

pussyeater:

Mind your business before I slap your flat head!

Why not try me nd see

Luciferdevil:
Why not try me nd see

I know you're in your house but I won't go and beat you!

cosby02:

i think thats the reason why you are still single at your old age, stilll very poor, not fulfilling your potentials and so on...all your mates are doing great things in and outside Nigeria, your own is to be grumbling. Get a life.

Which great thing have you done to even make only your self proud?

I know you are still staying under your dad's roof, so focus on the message and live the messenger

cosby02:

i think thats the reason why you are still single at your old age, stilll very poor, not fulfilling your potentials and so on...all your mates are doing great things in and outside Nigeria, your own is to be grumbling. Get a life.

You must belong in a coven operating as a prinicipality and power who came to steal,kill and destroy to know all these..

Typing this at after 12am when normal humans are sleeping lays credence to my assertions...Go for an urgent deliverance for spiritual healing so your life can have a meaning instead of analysing the life of someone you dont know on a faceless forum,will never meet and does not know or care whether you are alive,dead or merely existing.

And by the way,Nigeria is on life support as we speak,with practically everything getting worse and not better...If nothing urgent is done in the next 10years,then the inevitable will either happen or the process will commence..You can keep crying if you like.

e-diots will tear themselves apart because Biafra was considered truly and universally separatist.

Nigeria shot themselves back into the stone age when they declared ipob a terrorist group.

BrutalJab:

Which great thing have you done to even make only your self proud?

I know you are still staying under your dad's roof, so focus on the message and live the messenger

Please my dear leave that unemployed and hard-up kid who is still being fed by his parents or guardian..he knows nothing...His type thinks following davido and wizkid around aimlessly and calculating how much they earn and are worth on instagram is a sign Nigeria is great
.Open a thread where you will promise to give then 1k and watch how they will flood your mentions in their thousands with begging bowls salivating and switching monickers a thousand times,jusy for 1k..with more than half of them unemployed jobless graduates for many years from Universities home and abroad.

But to them everything is okay and those who criticize how things are in this country are either 'unmarried' for females or 'broke for males..the irony.

Pharoh let my ppl go...israel ga anariri

Ngokafor:




You must belong in a coven operating as a prinicipality and power who came to steal,kill and destroy to know all these..

Typing this at after 12am when normal humans are sleeping lays credence to my assertions...Go for an urgent deliverance for spiritual healing so your life can have a meaning instead of analysing the life of someone you dont know on a faceless forum,will never meet and does not know or care whether you are alive,dead or merely existing.

And by the way,Nigeria is on life support as we speak,with practically everything getting worse and not better...If nothing urgent is doing in the next 10years,then the inevitable will either happen or the process will commence..You can keep crying if you like.

she foolishly thinks i will read all this.

One thing is clear, Igbos shoumd not be in one country with Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba.

Only God knows what Lugard was thinking when he brought all three ethnic group together

All they have been doing since then is fighting and killing each other.