Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Wednesday warned that many of the factors that triggered Nigeria’s civil war in 1967 are still present, stressing that every effort must be made to prevent a recurrence of such a conflict, which was marked by massive loss of lives and property.
Obasanjo made the remark while receiving a book, research materials, videos and interviews of eyewitnesses documenting the Asaba Massacre and related events, compiled by Chief Chuck Nduka-Eze, Chairman of the Asaba Memorial Trust and the Asaba Image Branding and Project Committee, at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta.
The former president hailed Nduka-Eze for preserving the nation’s history, saying the importance of documenting the past lies in helping the country understand its history, learn from it and ensure such tragedies never happen again.
He added that one of the core values of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library is to preserve the past, capture the present and inspire the future, while emphasising that understanding the events surrounding the civil war, including the Asaba Massacre, remains critical to national healing.
“We pride ourselves that we preserve the past, we capture the present, and we inspire the future,” he said.
