Nigeria’s long-ignored wounds were thrust into the national spotlight yesterday as the Foundation for Peace Professionals (PeacePro), led by its Executive Director, Abdulrazaq Hamzat, unveiled a groundbreaking and controversial blueprint for national healing, one that demands a rare, honest confrontation with the country’s painful past.
In a bold statement, Hamzat warned that Nigeria cannot continue to “patch over deep scars” while expecting unity to magically emerge. According to him, “True reconciliation begins with truth, acknowledgment, and the courage to say, we are sorry.”
The PeacePro blueprint calls for a series of symbolic yet powerful apologies across regions, communities, institutions, ethnic blocs, and religious groups, a move that has already ignited intense national debate.
The proposal outlines a sweeping set of restorative gestures.
The South East should apologize to the Niger Delta for political maneuvers that heightened tensions leading to the iconic 12-Day Revolution.
The South East should also apologize for the 1966 first military coup, an event that reshaped Nigeria’s political trajectory.
The North must apologize for the pogroms against the Igbo, one of the most tragic and haunting chapters in Nigeria’s history.
The Federal Government should apologize to every Nigerian for decades of insecurity, corruption, economic hardship, and consistent governance failures.
The Federal Government should also apologize to the South East for the massive human and economic losses suffered during the Nigerian Civil War.
Fulani leadership should apologize to victims of banditry and herders-related violence, which have devastated entire communities.
The three major ethnic groups, Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo, must apologize to the minority groups for decades of political and cultural marginalization.
Christians and Muslims should apologize to each other for mutual intolerance, while both faiths should also apologize to traditional worshipers for decades of discrimination and exclusion.
“This is not blame, this is leadership”
Hamzat emphasized that the blueprint is not designed to provoke division, but to liberate Nigeria from decades of denial, silence, and unaddressed trauma. “An apology is not weakness,” he said. “It is leadership. It is maturity. It is the first step toward healing.”
He stressed that for Nigeria to truly move forward, every region and group must interrogate its role in the nation’s troubled history. “No group is guiltless. No community is without pain. Every side contributed to where we are. Every side must contribute to where we’re going.”
PeacePro’s blueprint concludes with a powerful appeal for national forgiveness, not as a dismissal of the past, but as a requirement for the future.
According to the organization, Nigeria stands today at a historic crossroads, one where truth, courage, and collective forgiveness may finally build the united and peaceful nation that generations have long imagined.
With this bold intervention, PeacePro has thrown a challenge not just to government, but to every Nigerian, asking them to choose healing over hurt, and unity over division.
