An Original Examination of the Right to Self-Determination, Secession, and Constitutional Order in Nigeria: Biafra, Oduduwa, and the Federal Question

The right to self-determination and its relationship to state sovereignty and constitutional order presents the most existentially challenging public law question confronting the Nigerian federal state. The agitations of the Indigenous People of Biafra in the South East and the Yoruba Nation movement in the South West, alongside the resource control demands of South South communities, collectively pose the question of whether the right to self-determination is available to sub-national groups within Nigeria under international law, African Charter law, and Nigerian constitutional law. An original theoretical examination of the relationship between self-determination rights, secession doctrine, and constitutional order in Nigeria's multi-ethnic federation is absent from the comparative public law literature. This study develops an original theory of self-determination within Nigeria's constitutional order, examining the international law, African Charter, and constitutional dimensions of self-determination claims by IPOB, the Yoruba Nation movement, and Niger Delta autonomy advocates. The methodology combines doctrinal analysis of international and Nigerian constitutional law on self-determination with qualitative analysis of the movements' legal arguments, responses by Nigerian courts and the African Commission, and comparative theoretical analysis from Scotland, Quebec, and Catalonia. The Internal Self-Determination Theory, Remedial Secession Doctrine, and Constitutional Pluralism Theory provide the theoretical architecture. The study's original contribution is a Contextualised African Federal Self-Determination Theory applicable to multi-ethnic post-colonial states. Findings generate a constitutionally grounded framework for addressing legitimate self-determination claims through federal constitutional reform. Keywords: self-determination, secession, Biafra, constitutional order, Nigeria.