Nigeria’s unresolved historical grievances were thrust back into national focus yesterday as the Foundation for Peace Professionals (PeacePro) unveiled a provocative blueprint urging collective truth-telling and mutual apologies as a pathway to national healing.
Presenting the document in Abuja, PeacePro’s Executive Director, Abdulrazaq Hamzat, said Nigeria could no longer “patch over deep scars” while expecting unity to flourish. “True reconciliation begins with truth, acknowledgment, and the courage to say, ‘we are sorry’,” he declared.
The blueprint proposes a sweeping list of symbolic apologies among regions, ethnic groups, religious communities and national institutions—recommendations that have already stirred intense public debate.
According to the proposal, the South-East should apologise to the Niger Delta over political manoeuvres linked to the 12-Day Revolution, and also for the 1966 first military coup. The North, it says, must apologise for the anti-Igbo pogroms, while the Federal Government should apologise to all Nigerians for decades of insecurity, corruption and economic mismanagement, as well as to the South-East for the human and material toll of the civil war.
The document further calls on Fulani leadership to apologise to victims of banditry and herders-related violence, and urges the three major ethnic blocs—Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo—to apologise to minority groups for long-standing political and cultural marginalisation.
PeacePro also recommends mutual apologies between Christians and Muslims for intolerance, while both faiths should apologise to traditional worshippers for decades of exclusion.
Hamzat stressed that the proposal was not about assigning blame but about demonstrating maturity. “An apology is not weakness; it is leadership,” he said. “No group is guiltless. No community is without pain. Every side contributed to where we are, and every side must contribute to where we’re going.”
The blueprint concludes with an appeal for national forgiveness, describing it as essential for building a lasting, united Nigeria.
With its bold recommendations, PeacePro has issued a challenge to political leaders and citizens alike: to choose healing over hurt, and unity over division.
