Catalonia Independence struggle:

Lessons for Cameroon & Nigeria

The crisis in Spain's Catalonia region is being closely watched in Nigeria and Cameroon, where secessionist movements have been stepping up campaigns for independence, as BBC Pidgin editor Adejuwon Soyinka reports.

                Many Nigerians and Cameroonians were looking to Spain, hoping it would find a peaceful solution to demands for independence in the Catalan region.

                But this changed when violence broke out over the independence referendum held in Catalonia on 1 October in defiance of the Spanish central government and courts.

                "What both the campaigners for Biafran and Catalan secession have in common is the heavy-handedness (and empty-headedness) of their federal governments," wrote political commentator Onyedimmakachukwu Obiukwu.

                He hails from the Igbo ethnic group which is at the centre of the campaign to create the breakaway state of Biafra in south-eastern Nigeria.

                Just as Spanish police have been accused of using excessive force against Catalans who took part in the disputed vote, Nigeria's military has been accused by the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) movement of "invading" the south-east, killing innocent people and raiding the homes of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, and his father, Eze Israel Kanu.

                The raids were condemned as "primitive and cowardly" by another secessionist movement, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra.

                The military has repeatedly defended what it calls Operation Python Dance II - the heavy deployment of troops to the south-east to quell pro-independence protests.

                It says it seized weapons during the raid on the home of Mr Kanu senior.

                Neighbouring Cameroon has also been hit by calls for independence - this time for the two English-speaking regions in the majority French-speaking country.

                Anglophones have been protesting for months, saying they faced marginalisation.

                On 1 October, security forces shot dead 17 protesters during clashes in the region, according to Amnesty International.

                The authorities even went as far as imposing an internet blackout in the North-West and South-West provinces, which are the two majority English-speaking areas.

Banned as terrorist group

                Prior to the independence vote in Catalonia on 1 October, advocates of self-determination in Cameroon and Nigeria had looked up to Spain as a model for what they described as a rancour-free "divorce".

                They were quick to point out that Catalans were after the same thing and the Spanish government had shown restraint in its approach.

                This changed to some extent when national police were sent in to disrupt the unofficial independence referendum the regional Catalan government had organised.

However, it is still free to argue its cause.

                In Nigeria, the military viewed Ipob as a terrorist group and the authorities got it proscribed as such.

                Under new laws it is now an offence bordering on terrorism to be a member of Ipob, or be found with posters, flyers or even clothing with Ipob's logo or inscription anywhere in Nigeria.