engineering and creative feats of Biafrans who manufactured weapons,
refined crude oil through local technology, during the war.
He described the war as a defining national tragedy, stressing that the
essence of the remembrance was to recall the bitter lessons of the war
and ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Osinbajo who spoke at a town hall meeting on the 50th Anniversary of the
Nigerian Civil War at the National War Museum, Umuahia, Abia State,
organized by the Ken Nnamani Center for Leadership and Development,
Osinbajo said the lessons of the war should assuage feelings of wrong
and make the country better.
He, however, stated that in spite of the challenges and differences
among component units of the federation, Nigeria is better united as one
nation.
The Vice President explained that the cost of resolving differences
through war was higher than resolving them peacefully.
He advised Nigerians to not see the setbacks as reason for hopelessness,
stressing that the mission of the Buhari administration was to build a
great nation where the teeming youths would express their creative
energy.
“The most crucial task is to ensure that issues of fairness, justice and
equity are entrenched in the polity and ensure that the younger
generation does not see Nigeria with the lenses of the war era,”
Osinbajo said.
He noted that the South East zone of the country was the center of
entrepreneurship and creativity as well as the hub of industrialization.
Speaking at the occasion, Abia State governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu
called for priority attention to areas under serious bombardment during
the war in infrastructural development.
He noted that events such as the town hall meeting should afford people
the opportunity to terms with the injustice and injuries of the war for
reconciliation.
Ikpeazu wondered why it was faster to achieve true reconciliation and
healing of wounds of the Rwandan civil war than in Nigeria 50 years
after.
Convener of the town hall meeting and former Senate President, Chief Ken
Nnamani, said it was through such meetings that enduring reconciliation
could be achieved.
According to Nnamani, “We should learn to refrain from the bitterness
and grievances of the past. Nigerians should exercise restraint in their
conduct to avoid a repeat of the past. Elders of my generation should
guide the younger generation aright. The town hall meeting cannot
resolve all the issues of the civil war but we must chart a new course
for our nation.”