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Osinbajo sustains conversation on reparation for slavery

By Ujunwa Atueyi and Margaret Mwantok
10 August 2016   |   4:31 am
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said yesterday that issues relating to reparations for slavery can only be delayed and not denied.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (left), Mrs. Christie Ade Ajayi and Sir Hilary Beckles during the Inaugural JF Ade Ajayi Memorial Lecture held at the University of Lagos auditorium…yesterday

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (left), Mrs. Christie Ade Ajayi and Sir Hilary Beckles during the Inaugural JF Ade Ajayi Memorial Lecture held at the University of Lagos auditorium…yesterday

Don insists Nigeria must support the Caribbean

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said yesterday that issues relating to reparations for slavery can only be delayed and not denied.

The vice president, who was the guest of honour at the inaugural JF Ade Ajayi Memorial Lecture organised by Jadeas Trust in collaboration with the University of Lagos (UNILAG), said any just or righteous course, no matter how frequently ignored, would find fulfillment someday.

“I’m unable to take position for the nation, but note that the request for reparations for slavery over the generations is one that is just and righteous and I strongly believe that the conversation on it has not ended, and struggle certainly hasn’t ended,” Osinbajo said.

Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, Jamaica and Chairman of the Caribbean Community Commission on Reparation and Social Justice, Prof Hilary Beckles expressed displeasure on the refusal of African leaders to support their request for apology from the European government regarding crimes of the transatlantic slave trade.

Beckles, in his emotion-laden lecture titled “History and the Pan African Nations,” noted that the refusal to support the struggle was in bad faith and detrimental to the future of Africa.

According to the don, “Shockingly, our African government did not stand with us; it was very painful, that as we sought to lay the foundation for our future relationships, that the government in Nigeria, our largest government did not stand with us. The then Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo did say to me ‘we cannot support Caribbean on this.’ It was indeed painful. The language at Durban is that something awful has taken place.

He continued, “The Caribbean taught that we have stood by Africa through its difficult years and struggle for independence, we raised millions of dollars to support African liberation. We have given our intellectual support and life to Africa.

“We were therefore disturbed that when we were demanding an apology from the European government, we did not get support. That remains a wound that will not heal. We believe in the Caribbean that Nigeria especially, must rise to this occasion and support the Caribbean.”

He said Nigeria, as the motherland, must behave like a mother, since mothers do not turn their back on their children but rather take ownership.

He said, “African scholars and scholars in the Caribbean, have converged around the concept of global Africa and the concept of reparatory justice as a theme for the future. The issue of reparatory justice emerges out of history as the most compelling logical step for all of us in the next 10 or 15 years.”

5 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    No one should make a fool of themselves by asking for reparation for slavery. B4 and after the transatlantic slave trade, millions of blacks were taken across the sahara desert to be slaves in north africa and the arab world. in the name of protecting the image of their demonic religion, these countries have NEVER apologised or acknowledged their own slave trade which was worse than the transatlantic slave trade, for which western countries have apologised on many occasions. if any country will pay reparation for slave trade let the rich arab countries pay first. they should also tell us what happened to the descendants of millions of their black slaves, because historians say they were castrated to prevent them from reproducing in mass like black americans. According to historians, the fulani jihadists in the precolonial sokoto caliphate had more than a million slaves which they got from areas that were non-muslim. who is going to pay reparation for that one. islam is a religion of huge hypocrisy.

    • Author’s gravatar

      Grow up bro.Nobody is talking about Religion here.If the Jews were paid reparation for slave labour.Nothing stops African’s from asking for same.issue of reparation has nothing to do with Religion.

      • Author’s gravatar

        I do agree with you that Africans should be paid reparation for the past slavery. But are Africans not willingly going into slavery even now; due to the hardship they are facing in their own home lands? Check out any of European embassies in Nigeria on any working day and you will pity our fatherland that countries like Bulgaria are even refusing us visas! Let us even put it to test officially: let the government announce that a ship has just berthed at the Apapa Port ready to transport willing slaves to Europe and America. I can assure you that the ship will be filled to capacity in less than one hour. In fact, people will be bribing their way into the ship.

        Even if African nations are paid reparation today, what is going to be the sharing formula of the money? The offspring of slavery that are living in America and Europe are living far more comfortably than people in their roots of Africa. That is the fact of the matter.

      • Author’s gravatar

        can you tell me why you think the west should pay reparation for about three centuries of slavery while the arab countries should not pay any reparation for slavery that lasted more than that time? go and research and find out about the trans-saharan slave trade because it was carefully excluded from our history books in nigerian secondary schools. have you ever heard any arab country apologise for or even acknowledge their own slave trade? who should pay reparation to who??? are you aware that there were about 2 million slaves in the Sokoto caliphate at the height of its power and these slaves were taken from “pagan” peoples around areas conquered by the jihadists? i suggest you do thorough research on slavery so that you can get the whole picture.

  • Author’s gravatar

    Reparation is in order. We must all support it as a step in correcting the ills of colonialism and neo-colonialism.