Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has warned that Nigeria must never be allowed to descend into another civil war, stressing that many of the conditions that triggered the 1967–1970 conflict remain unresolved.
Obasanjo made the remark on Wednesday at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta, Ogun State, while receiving a historical documentation on the Asaba Massacre from the Isama Ajie of Asaba, Chief Chuck Nduka-Eze.
The work, titled Asaba Massacre, consists of a published transcript and an audiovisual documentary compiled from eyewitness accounts, recorded interviews, archival materials, audiovisual evidence, and extensive historical research.
Speaking during the presentation, Obasanjo, who served as a military commander during the Nigerian Civil War, said he had deliberately refrained from speaking in detail about the Asaba Massacre because the area was under the command of the late General Murtala Muhammed at the time.
He commended Nduka-Eze for documenting the tragic events, describing the publication as an important contribution to preserving Nigeria’s history and ensuring that similar atrocities are never repeated.
“We pride ourselves that we preserve the past, we capture the present and we inspire the future. We capture the past, and this is the past; we want to capture it, we want to know about it,” Obasanjo said.
Reflecting on his role during the war, the former president admitted he could not provide detailed accounts of the Asaba Massacre.
“I must confess, and you know that I was involved in the civil war. When people talk about the Asaba Massacre, I always confess that I cannot give details of it,” he stated.
Obasanjo also recounted an incident during the war in which he stopped a soldier from attempting to rape a woman in Asaba, noting that such misconduct would have attracted consequences under the principle of command responsibility.
Expressing concern over Nigeria’s current state, he warned that several of the grievances that fueled the civil war have yet to be adequately addressed, urging leaders and citizens alike to learn from history to safeguard the country’s unity and peace.
Earlier, Nduka-Eze said the publication was the result of years of painstaking research, drawing on eyewitness testimonies, recorded interviews, archival records, audiovisual documentation, and established historical scholarship.
According to him, the evidence consistently indicates that after federal troops entered Asaba, then a civilian population centre in the Mid-West Region during the civil war, residents were assembled in public places and instructed to demonstrate their loyalty to Nigeria by declaring, “One Nigeria.”
Credit: Vanguard
