Committee for Peace in Nigeria

The Committee for Peace in Nigeria (CPN) was an all-party, representative committee established as a result of concern raised by the conflict between Biafra and Nigeria, in the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970). The Committee acted as an independent body, but was closely associated with the work of the Movement for Colonial Freedom (MCF). Lord Fenner Brockway chaired both the MCF and the CPN. Members of the CPN included leading figures from all three political parties, representatives from the missionary societies (Anglican, Catholic and Free Church) working in Nigeria, former members of the Colonial Service in Nigeria including two ex-Governors General, business representatives and other notable figures. The CPN also included Africans from both the Federal and the Biafran sides of the conflict.

The Committee was active from 1968, campaigning for the intervention of the British Government and international governments in the Nigerian conflict. Representatives of the CPN met with both sides of the conflict and representatives from the British Commonwealth Office, and in 1968 sent an all-party deputation to the British Prime Minister. A result of the deputation was that the Rt. Hon. James Griffiths MP and Lord Brockway met with Colonel Ojukwu of Biafra (3-12 December 1968) and General Gowon of the Nigerian Federal Government (18-22 December 1968) to put forward their practical proposals for a ceasefire.

The CPN forwarded a set of practical proposals around which a ceasefire should be based. These included the presence of an international peace-keeping force; the cessation of the supply of arms by the British Government to either side in the conflict; that the government should take the initiative in securing the agreement of other countries to stop supplying arms; the demilitarisation of routes for relief supplies and an international relief effort to be planned on a government and UN level, for those areas suffering from starvation.