Transforming Pacifists into Warmongers? Separatist Movement, State Repression, and the Politics of Framing Terrorism in Nigeria: Evidence from IPOB and Yoruba Nation’s Freedom Frontiers

Abstract While the post-9/11 event has animated how state actors frame terrorism, contemporary studies have failed to address the politics inherent in proscribing, repressing, and labeling separatist movements as terrorists. This paper explores the politics of framing terrorism using the contemporary self-determination struggles advanced by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Yoruba Nation’s freedom frontiers. The study proposes a United Nations-coordinated global framework for regulating and evaluating states’ activities in identifying specific groups as terrorists. Taking such a stance would prevent aggrieved agitators from being persecuted by the state in the name of terror.

• Publication year

  2023

• Venue

  Journal of Applied Security Research

• Publication date

  2023-03-16

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1080/19361610.2023.2189867
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Proliferation of Armed Non-State Actors in the Sahel

  2024cited by this paper
• Neo-Biafra Separatist Agitations, State Repression and Insecurity in South-East, Nigeria

  2022cited by this paper
• What drives support for separatism? Exposure to conflict and relative ethnic size in Biafra, Nigeria

  2022influential reference
• Proscribing Peace: How Listing Armed Groups as Terrorists Hurts Negotiations

  2022cited by this paper
• The problem of the present in West Africa: Introducing a conceptual framework

  2021cited by this paper
• Separatism and the State

  2021cited by this paper
• EAST TIMOR: WHEN STATE REPRESSION MAKES SECESSION EASIER (1975-2002)

  2021cited by this paper
• The political economy of Biafra separatism and post-war Igbo nationalism in Nigeria

  2020cited by this paper
• Governing “Ungoverned Spaces” in the Foliage of Conspiracy: Toward (Re)ordering Terrorism, from Boko Haram Insurgency, Fulani Militancy to Banditry in Northern Nigeria

  2020cited by this paper
• The Ahiara Declaration

  2020cited by this paper
• Introduction: Constructions of Terrorism

  2019cited by this paper
• Finding Foreign Friends: National Self-Determination and Related Norms as Strategic Resources during the Biafran War for Independence, 1967–1970

  2019cited by this paper
• Enemy within the State: The Pathology of Boko Haram Insurgency, Military Corruption, and Fallacy of Arms Procurement in Nigeria

  2019cited by this paper
• The Fracturing of Pro-Biafra Nationalist Movements

  2019cited by this paper
• Nationalism and Terrorism

  2019cited by this paper
• Proscription’s Futures

  2018cited by this paper
• The Proscription or Listing of Terrorist Organisations: Understanding, Assessment, and International Comparisons

  2018cited by this paper
• The basic causes of the contemporary separatism

  2017cited by this paper
• Chechens: Freedom Fighters or Terrorists?

  2016cited by this paper
• Corruption complaints, inequality and ethnic grievances in post-Biafra Nigeria

  2014cited by this paper
• The Counter-Insurgence Operations of the Joint Task Force and Human Rights Abuses in Northern Nigeria, 2011─2013

  2014cited by this paper
• The Political Psychology of Terrorism Fears

  2013cited by this paper
• A Dictionary of Human Geography

  2013cited by this paper
• Constructing Psychological Terror Post 9/11

  2013cited by this paper
• Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism, Ben Emmerson :

  2013cited by this paper
• TERRORISM, PROSCRIPTION AND THE RIGHT TO RESIST IN THE AGE OF CONFLICT

  2012influential reference
• Framing Islam: An Analysis of U.S. Media Coverage of Terrorism Since 9/11

  2011cited by this paper
• Mediating Peace with Proscribed Armed Groups

  2011cited by this paper
• Framing Separatism as Terrorism: Lessons from Kosovo

  2010influential reference
• The Geography of Ethnic Violence

  2010cited by this paper
• Disciplining the Diaspora: Tamil Self-Determination and the Politics of Proscription

  2009cited by this paper
• The Role of Islam in Chechen National Identity

  2009cited by this paper
• Framing the War on Terror

  2009cited by this paper
• The Foundations of Ethnic Politics: A THEORY OF NATIONAL SEPARATISM IN DOMESTIC AND INTERSTATE POLITICS

  2008cited by this paper
• `We Don't Negotiate with Terrorists!': Legitimacy and Complexity in Terrorist Conflicts

  2008cited by this paper
• Limiting Dissent: The Mechanisms of State Repression in the USA

  2007cited by this paper
• The image of the terrorist threat in the official Russian press: the Moscow theatre crisis (2002) and the Beslan hostage crisis (2004)

  2007cited by this paper
• Chechnya - Russia's 'War on Terror'

  2007cited by this paper
• Russia's Restless Frontier: The Chechnya Factor in Post-Sowet Russia. By Dmitri V. Trenin and Aleksei V. Malashenko, with Anatol Lieven. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2004. xii, 264 pp. Notes. Index. Tables. $50.00, hard bound. $24.85, paper.

  2006cited by this paper
• Building Reputation: Why Governments Fight Some Separatists but Not Others

  2006cited by this paper
• Regulating the Media: Some Neglected Freedom of Expression Issues in the United Kingdom's Counter-Terrorism Strategy

  2006cited by this paper
• The Primacy of Politics in Separatist Dynamics

  2006cited by this paper
• Secession as Revolution

  2004cited by this paper
• Russia's Restless Frontier: The Chechnya Factor in Post-Soviet Russia

  2004cited by this paper
• Humanitarian Intervention and Afghanistan

  2003cited by this paper
• Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics

  2003cited by this paper
• Framing and Deliberation: How Citizens' Conversations Limit Elite Influence

  2003cited by this paper
• Framing and Deliberation: How Citizens'

  2003cited by this paper
• Framing Terrorism : The News Media, the Government and the Public

  2003cited by this paper
• Terrorism

  2002cited by this paper
• Formulation of a State's Response to Terrorism and State-Sponsored Terrorism

  2002cited by this paper
• Before and after: The Changed UN Response to Terrorism Since September 11th

  2002cited by this paper
• The Furies: Violence and Terror in the French and Russian Revolutions

  2000cited by this paper
• Sacrifice as Terror: The Rwandan Genocide of 1994

  1999cited by this paper
• United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme

  1993cited by this paper
• Terrorism: The Media and the Law

  1983cited by this paper
• Separatist Agitations in Nigeria Since 1914

  1970influential reference
• Framing analysis, dramatism and terrorism coverage: politician and press responses to the Madrid airport bombing

  1970cited by this paper
• My Life

  1940cited by this paper

• From 9/11 to Today: The Political Impact of Terrorism on Human Rights

  2026cites this paper
• Will social justice for the people of southeast Nigeria prevent Biafra’s secession?

  2026cites this paper
• Nigerian government and the neo-Biafra activism: understanding the danger of kinetic approach to (non)violent social movements

  2025cites this paper
• Dread in the Homeland: Symbolic Politics and Ethnonationalist Struggles for Self‐Determination in Nigeria

  2025cites this paper
• The Video Proves They’re All Cannibals: The Weaponisation of Ritualistic Cannibalism in Cameroon’s and Nigeria’s (Anti) Separatist Propaganda

  2025cites this paper
• Neo-Oduduwa separatist agitations, State repression and insecurity in southwest Nigeria

  2025cites this paper
• The decolonial dimension of the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria

  2025cites this paper
• From Operation Python Dance to Udoka : Neo-Biafra separatist struggle and military-led peacebuilding operations in Southeast Nigeria

  2025cites this paper
• Reimagining Biafra: between historical memory and political reality

  2025cites this paper
• The (Necro)Politics of Framing Terrorism in Countering Separatist Movements: Strategies and Human Rights Implications in Quebec, Kashmir, and Xinjiang

  2025influential citation
• Discourse, incivility and language aggression in social media debates on Biafra separatist agitation: Implications for Nigeria’s democratic future

  2025cites this paper
• Legal Framework and Challenges Concerning Forensic Evidence in Nigeria

  2025cites this paper
• Regional Differences in Support for Secession Among Members of the Igbo Ethnic Group in Nigeria

  2025cites this paper
• Non-military actors, IED networks and guerrilla warfare: unpacking small wars dynamics within the conflict landscape in Southeast Nigeria

  2025cites this paper
• The politics of terror group designation and implications for Nigeria's national security

  2025cites this paper
• Addressing the Wicked Problems in Nigeria with the ‘4Es’ in Public Administration

  2024cites this paper
• The United States Foreign Policy towards Sub-Saharan Africa: Insights from Ghana, Tanzania, and Zambia, and the Omission of Nigeria

  2024cites this paper
• Biafran Separatism in Post-War Nigeria: Religious Identity, Intergroup Threats, and the (In)compatibility of Christianity and Islam

  2024cites this paper
• Social Media Use and the Biafra Separatist Conflict in Nigeria

  2024influential citation
• ‘We shall triumph like the Jews’: unveiling the implicit side of IPOB’s armed separatism in Southeast Nigeria

  2024cites this paper
• Repressing the Voice, Increasing the Noise: The Imperative for Negotiation as a Panacea to Security Crisis in the South East, Nigeria (PART II)

  2024influential citation
• “When We Believe in State Power, It Tends to Fail Us”: Insights Into the Management of Herder-Peasant Farmer Conflicts in Benue State, Nigeria

  2024cites this paper