Word: ibos
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After independence, though, a Yoruba-Ibo alliance coalesced into a single party opposing the Hausa. The numerical superiority of the North was one spur for the coalition, and, in fact, despite the coalition, the Hausa won a massive victory in the '64 elections...
Thus, the Yoruba and Ibo came together not so much because they feared the numerical preponderance of the Hausa, for it would have been more politically expedient for either group to make peace with the Hausa against the other, but because they feared the political dominance of an uneducated majority. They could see the resources of the East and West financing the development of the North, and they envisioned hordes of inefficient Hausa bureaucrats...
...propaganda arms of the Ibo and Yoruba party labelled the Hausa traitors and stooges of the British, while in the North rioting between the feuding groups broke...
...British mediated the feuds; after independence they were unchecked. The Hausa government elected in 1964 amidst cries of foul play was topped by an Ibo-led coup in January, '66. The new government which had seized power to "clean up the country" did so with a vengeance, and the deaths of former Hausa leaders sparked riots and unrest in the North...
Whatever the reason, the compromise candidate could not hold Nigeria together. He tried. After the Ibo massacres, he offered concessions, but whatever he did was interpreted by Governor Ojukwu as one more sign of duplicity and hatred. On the one hand, it seemed, Gowon offered friendship, while on the other, the people he governed murdered Ibos. Gow- on was caught. Only punishing the Hausa mobs involved in the riots would have placated Ojukwu, but to punish Hausas when the bulk of the army was Hausa would have been political suicide...