Repatriation: Time for African fraternity, consolidation, national strategies – Nwoko

Nathan Tamarapreye

Sen. Ned Nwoko (APC-Delta) and Chairman, Senate Committee on Reparations and Repatriation, says it is time for African fraternity, consolidation and national strategies in confronting the painful legacies of its past.

Nwoko said this on Monday in Abuja in his address of welcome at a one-day consultative forum with all African Ambassadors in Nigeria organised by the Senate Committee on Reparations and Repatriation.

Nwoko also said that the forum was more than a meeting, as it was a remarkable moment in time.

According to him, it is a moment for redefining Africa’s place in history, not as a victim seeking sympathy, but as a continent asserting its rightful place in global justice conversation, demanding accountability, restitution and respect.

He disclosed that the committee was formally established by the Nigerian Senate on July 17, 2024, with a mandate to address the centuries-old injustices inflicted upon Nigerians through slavery, colonisation, exploitation, and systemic discrimination, both historical and contemporary.

“This forum, organised as a strategic engagement with Your Excellencies, aims to foster dialogue, share insights, and forge practical, collaborative pathways for advancing across the African continent.

“The work before us is neither symbolic nor ceremonial. It is structured, evidence-based, and far-reaching. Our committee is guided by specific terms of reference that reflect the weight of our responsibility.

“This includes addressing historical and systemic injustices that have long dehumanised and marginalised various groups and communities within Nigeria, and the broader African diaspora.

“It is also to collate credible evidence of wrongdoing by individuals, states, corporations, and other institutions, past and present, and make concrete recommendations for appropriate compensation and redress,” he said.

The reparations and repatriation committee chairman further said that the committee was mandated to pursue the return of looted cultural artefacts and heritage materials taken during colonial conquests or illicit trade.

According to him, this includes leveraging international legal frameworks and institutions to seek restitution and financial reparation where applicable.

“To identify and interrogate historical injustices, establish dialogical frameworks, and propose legal and policy templates that are in alignment with national constitutions and international conventions.

“This will include collaboration with both local and international experts across fields, law, history, anthropology, economics, and diplomacy,” he said.

He added that the committee was also expected to evolve a holistic national and regional strategy that reflected the complex intersections of culture, justice, and economic sustainability.

“The committee is also to interrogate and challenge ongoing neocolonial structures and practices that sustain economic and institutional subjugation in Nigeria,” he added.

Nwoko noted that the mandate not only covers matters of culture and history, but extends into virtually all sectors of the nation’s socio-economic architecture; education, resource control, infrastructure, restitution, and intergovernmental equity.

He emphasised that the forum was further invigorated by recent continental effort, adding that in February the African Union (AU) reinforced the call for reparative mechanisms to provide not just economic compensation, but healing acknowledgement and empowerment.

“That AU summit marked a pivotal moment, affirming that reparation is no longer a fringe discourse, but now central to Africa’s collective agenda for justice, recognition and transformation.

“It is in this context that we engage you, Your Excellencies. Your insights, diplomatic experiences, and policy perspectives are crucial to shaping what must become an African-wide position, a unified voice that will reverberate in international chambers and the court of justice.

“Together, we must construct a strategy that is both morally grounded and diplomatically effective,” he further said.