Governance, Conflict, and Post-War Reconstruction in Biafra Communities: Memory, Identity, and State-Society Relations

This study examines the long-run governance consequences of the Nigerian civil war for state-society relations in South East Nigeria, investigating how collective memory of the Biafran war experience continues to shape political identity, institutional trust, and demands for governance reform among Igbo communities across the South East geopolitical zone. The political science literature on post-conflict state-building has extensively examined the immediate aftermath of civil wars but has produced limited analysis of how war memory shapes governance dynamics over multi-generational timescales. Drawing on historical institutionalism, the politics of memory literature, and the political sociology of ethnic nationalism, the study develops an original framework for analysing the governance consequences of contested collective memory in post-civil war societies. Primary data is generated through oral history interviews with 85 respondents across three generational cohorts in Anambra, Enugu, and Imo states, supplemented by documentary analysis of Biafran and Nigerian state archival materials and ethnographic observation of memorialisation practices. The study finds that Biafran war memory has been institutionalised as an intergenerational transmitter of political distrust towards the Nigerian federal state, significantly shaping support for separatist movements including the Indigenous People of Biafra and creating governance legitimacy deficits that reduce state capacity for programme implementation in the region. The study makes an original contribution to the comparative post-conflict governance literature by demonstrating the durability of memory-based institutional distrust across generations in the absence of formal transitional justice processes. Recommendations include a national truth and reconciliation process addressing the civil war legacy. Keywords: civil war memory, post-conflict governance, South East Nigeria, Biafra, state-society relations