Former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has called on the Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa-Fulani and other ethnic groups still aggrieved over the violent coups d’état and the civil war from July 6, 1967, to January 15, 1970, to let go of bitter feelings.
Acknowledging that the war should not have happened, the former military dictator, in an interview on the Before Tomorrow Comes Podcast, Mr Obasanjo said, “One of the tragedies of this country will be the circumstances that led to the civil war and the civil war itself. I wish we realised at the end of the civil war that the civil war was a war we should not have fought, then apologised to ourselves and continued.
“For us to say, look, this particular individual or group in Nigeria has committed something that is not forgivable, I believe it’s a mistake, because we have all done things that we should not have done. Some of us have done things we shouldn’t have done. For as long as we live on this, we will never get it right.
“We should be in a balanced life, and we all have to learn that in Nigeria. Going back and saying, he did this to me, if you say the Yorubas are bad, because of probably what one Yoruba man had done, or the Fulanis are bad, because of what one Fulani man had done, then, who is good? There are good and bad Yorubas, there are bad and good Fulanis, there are good and bad Igbos.”
The former president added, “I would have probably been killed in the period of the coup, conflicts and confusion. It was an officer like me, General Hassan Katsina, who said, ‘Look, Oba, if you remain in Kaduna, we’re not sure we will be safe,’ and I was transferred to Borno, in Maiduguri. That was my first time going to Maiduguri. I was there for almost a month. When things cooled down and settled, I was brought back to Kaduna. Maybe if that didn’t happen, I might have been killed in Kaduna when things were hot and confused.
“So, for the greatness of this country, we all have to accept that some things have been done that shouldn’t have been done, then we put it behind us. Some things have not been done that should have been done. Let’s put that behind us. Some things need to be done? Okay, let’s see what needs to be done for the good of the country.”
