OHAZURUME - Unizik Journal of Culture and Civilization

The end of a war is usually followed by a period of reconstruction. This involves three parallel and many of the time, inter-woven activities which include reconstruction of physical facilities damaged by the war; economic rehabilitation of individuals and groups; reconciliation which sees to the establishment of normal relations between individuals and groups that fought on either side of the (war) divide.The paper examines the situation of the people at the end of the war, the transition to peace and most importantly assesses the efforts made by the war survivors and the nature of the federal government expression of the policy of reconstruction, and rehabilitation in Ibibioland. In doing this, the paper adopts the qualitative method of research and enquiry where oral and documentary data collected are analysed and the content extracted for writing the paper. The oral data were sourced from unstructured interviews with persons who experienced the war and persons whose loved ones narrated the wartime experiences to them. The documentary data are made up of textbooks, government publications and newspapers of the war period. The intelligence reports on the Ibibio were sourced from the Nigerian National Archives in Calabar, Enugu and Ibadan respectively. The paper finds that the Ibibio who described themselves as reluctant Biafrans and showed antipathy towards Biafra acquired different skills and also learned different crafts that became useful after the war when reconstruction of damaged roads and bridges began. It also finds that reconstruction was done communally and heavily anchored by families, in-laws and kinsmen.

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