Nigeria heading to genocide, CSOs warn

‘51,733 killed, 15,597 abducted in 10 years’

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in a distressing verdict have said Nigeria is tilting towards the Rwandan experience of genocide as individuals are killed on the basis of ethnic and religious sentiments.

They stated this yesterday at the public presentation of the book ‘After Genocide Memory and Reconciliation in Rwanda’ and a panel discussion on lessons for Nigeria, organised by the California State University, Sacramento, USA; Chrisland University, Abeokuta; Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA); and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Abuja.

Executive Secretary of NHRC, Tony Ojukwu, said Nigeria has a lot to learn from Rwanda with regards to the ethnic cleansing caused by ethnicity and religious differences.

“Rwanda was a case where ethnicity, religious differences propagated hatred to the extent that each of the ethnic groups wanted to eliminate the other ethnic group and hate speech was fueled. The lesson for Nigeria is that we don’t have to allow what happened in Rwanda where about a million persons were killed in 100 days, happen here.”

Author of the book and associate professor at the California State University, Sacramento, Dr. Nicole Fox, who is also a board member Centre for African Peace and Conflict Reconciliation (CAPCR), said “the importance of recognizing past atrocities, naming them and validating survivors’ experiences as well as providing them with resources for them to heal are important.”

Insisting that unless concrete steps are taken towards reconciliation and tolerance, ethnic and religious cleansing remains a threat to Nigeria, Executive Director, Global Rights Nigeria, Abiodun Baiyewu, observed that genocide is already ongoing in Nigeria as mass atrocities have been happening with many killed and abducted without any accountability.

She lamented that between 2015 and 2024, 51,733 persons were killed due to ethnic or religious grounds while 25,597 have been abducted in a country that is not at war.