The Federal Government is set to make a formal reconciliation declaration on the 1967 Asaba Massacre, Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori has disclosed.
Oborevwori made the disclosure on Wednesday during the annual memorial ceremony for the victims of the massacre in Asaba, where hundreds of civilians were killed during the Nigerian Civil War.
Represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Dr Kingsley Emu, the governor said formal recognition of the tragedy by the Federal Government was necessary to advance the process of reconciliation.
He said Delta State had already acknowledged the massacre and would continue to support efforts to secure national recognition of the victims and establish an appropriate memorial.
“An official acknowledgement by the respective governments is critical. Delta State has acknowledged the tragedy. Nigeria will acknowledge it, and we believe the world will also acknowledge it,” the governor said.
Oborevwori added that the state was hopeful that the Federal Government would soon make the proposed declaration.
“A formal reconciliation declaration will be made by the Nigerian government, and we are hopeful that this will happen,” he said.
The governor said confronting the painful history of the massacre should not be interpreted as an attack on Nigeria, but as part of efforts to learn from the past and prevent a recurrence.
“Never again should ethnicity, suspicion or political conflict become a licence for the killing of innocent people,” he said.
“Do not inherit its bitterness; inherit its lessons.”
‘No closure without presidential apology’
The Asagba of Asaba, Prof Epiphany Azinge, said the people of Asaba had forgiven those responsible for the killings but insisted that forgiveness should not mean forgetting the tragedy.
Azinge said the community could not achieve complete closure without a public apology from a sitting President of Nigeria.
“We have moved on,” he said, adding that “there will be no closure and no healing until a sitting President of Nigeria publicly apologises to the Asaba people.”
The memorial also witnessed an apology from Maj-Gen Ahmed Ibrahim Taiwo (retd.), whose late father, Maj Ibrahim Taiwo, was an Army officer associated with the events.
Taiwo said he had undertaken years of research into his father's role in the massacre before deciding to apologise to the people of Asaba.
“I cannot change what happened, but I believe and pray that this gesture can be a step towards reconciliation,” he said.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who sent a recorded message, described the massacre as one of the most painful and disturbing episodes of the Nigerian Civil War.
Obasanjo urged Nigerians to embrace forgiveness, recalling that he wept after reading documents detailing the killings.
“Never again will such a black and unpleasant day occur in Nigeria or anywhere else in Africa,” he said.
Calls for truth, justice
The Isama Ajie of Asaba and convener of the memorial, Chief Chuks Nduka-Eze, said the central message of the commemoration was that “Nigerian lives matter”.
He questioned why the country had not provided a comprehensive account of the killing of civilians in Asaba.
The Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemeka Achebe, called for a process that would address the historical grievances arising from the massacre.
“There must be truth. There must be justice. There must be healing. And then, forgiveness can follow,” Achebe said.
Emu, who represented the governor at the event, said the proposed memorial centre would preserve the names, testimonies and historical records of the victims.
“We have survivors. We have testimonies. We have names, even if they may not yet be exhaustive,” he said.
He added that the people of Asaba had endured the consequences of the massacre and emerged stronger, stressing that the objective of reconciliation was forgiveness rather than revenge.
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