Obasanjo: God forbid Nigeria sees another civil war

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has warned that many of the factors that led to Nigeria’s civil war remain unresolved, urging Nigerians to ensure the country never experiences another armed conflict.

Obasanjo spoke on Wednesday while receiving a book, research materials, videos and eyewitness interviews documenting the Asaba Massacre and related events from the Chairman of the Asaba Memorial Trust and the Asaba Image Branding and Project Committee, Chief Chuck Nduka-Eze, at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta.

The former president described the prospect of another civil war as unacceptable, saying Nigeria had already paid a heavy price for the 1967 conflict.

Obasanjo said: “What went wrong in the past is essential to preventing a repeat. We must do everything humanly possible to prevent its recurrence.”

He warned that some of the conditions that fuelled the civil war still exist.

He said: “Some of the things that led to the Civil War are still with us. How long will this remain so?

“I was with a colleague when Gen Yakubu Gowon said that we would not survive a second civil war as a country.

“I believe we have fought one civil war too many already.

“To say that we will have a second civil war, God forbid.

“We must understand what happened, condemn what should not have happened, and do everything humanly possible to prevent its recurrence.

“And then, for us to be able to say, ‘never again,’ what are we going to do to make that possible?

“Thank you very much for making people know about it, for people to learn from it, and for people to take a vow that it should never happen again. I will do everything possible to ensure that there is never again a civil war in this country.”

Obasanjo commended Nduka-Eze for preserving the history of the Asaba Massacre, saying documenting the past was essential for national healing and preventing future tragedies.

He said: “At OOPL, 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.

“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.”

The former president explained that military operations in Asaba were under the command of the late former Head of State, Gen. Murtala Mohammed.

He added that towards the end of the war he was given responsibilities to ensure further massacres did not occur.

Obasanjo also recalled personally stopping a soldier from raping a woman in Asaba, stressing that abuses by soldiers were neither ordered nor condoned.

He added that former Head of State Gen. Yakubu Gowon had publicly acknowledged and apologised for the excesses of the war.

Presenting the materials, Nduka-Eze described the documentation as a carefully cross-referenced collection of eyewitness testimonies, recorded interviews, archival records, audio-visual materials and historical scholarship on the Asaba Massacre.

Nduka-Eze said: “The evidence establishes a recurring pattern. Civilians were assembled in public places under conditions of fear and uncertainty.

“During these assemblies, residents were required to proclaim allegiance to the Nigerian state, including being instructed to declare ‘One Nigeria’ and otherwise demonstrate loyalty.

“In a setting where identity and suspicion had become dangerously intertwined, these acts were understood by those present as affirmations of belonging and safety.

“Men were then separated from women and children.

“Thereafter, unarmed male civilians were killed in a manner consistently described across multiple independent accounts.