No part of this country is innocent; every community carries its own wounds,” — Abdulrazaq Hamzat
Nigeria’s long-suppressed grievances were brought to the forefront yesterday as the Foundation for Peace Professionals (PeacePro) released a bold and highly provocative national healing framework. The initiative, championed by Executive Director Abdulrazaq Hamzat, urges the nation to honestly confront its painful history and take collective responsibility.
Hamzat cautioned that Nigeria cannot keep glossing over decades of trauma while hoping for unity. “Genuine reconciliation requires truth, acknowledgment, and the humility to say ‘we are sorry,’” he declared.
The PeacePro document proposes a nationwide series of symbolic apologies from regions, institutions, ethnic and religious groups a recommendation that has already triggered heated national discussions.
The South East should apologize to the Niger Delta over political moves that contributed to the 12-Day Revolution.
The region should also express remorse for the 1966 first military coup, a pivotal event that reshaped Nigeria’s political future.
The North is urged to apologize for the pogroms against the Igbo one of the darkest chapters in Nigeria’s history.
The Federal Government should tender an apology to all Nigerians for decades of insecurity, corruption, economic mismanagement, and recurring leadership failures.
The government must also apologize specifically to the South East for the staggering human and material losses of the Civil War.
Fulani leaders should apologize to victims of banditry and herder-related violence nationwide.
The Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo ethnic groups are asked to apologize to minority communities for prolonged political and cultural marginalization.
Christians and Muslims should apologize to each other for years of intolerance, while both faith groups should also seek forgiveness from traditional worshipers for decades of exclusion.
“This is not an accusation it is leadership,” Hamzat insists
Hamzat stressed that the blueprint is not intended to reopen old wounds but to free the country from decades of silence and unresolved trauma. “Apology is not a sign of weakness,” he said. “It reflects leadership and maturity the foundation of any true healing process.”
He added that real progress demands every region and group to reflect on its complicity in Nigeria’s troubled history. “No group is blameless. Every community has suffered. Every side played a part in where we are and every side must play a part in where we are going.”
The document ends with an emphatic call for national forgiveness not as a way to erase history, but as a moral requirement for building the future.
With this audacious proposal, PeacePro places a historic challenge before Nigerians: to choose reconciliation over resentment, and unity over perpetual division.
