A member of the Nigerian Senate, Senator Ned Munir Nwoko (PDP, Delta North), has asked former colonialists to pay $5 trillion to African nations as reparations for historical injustices done to Africa.
In a statement he personally signed, Nwoko also demanded for the repatriation of “culturally significant artefacts that were taken from the African continent during the colonial period”.
He said the demand was done not as an act of vengeance, but as a path to healing and restoration even as he stressed the need to establish a comprehensive reparations framework that would assess the damages inflicted by centuries of injustice.
Nwoko enjoined colonial powers and the international community to acknowledge the grave consequences of colonialism, which has impacted negatively on the growth and development of the developed nations, especially Nigeria.
“Furthermore, I beseech former colonial powers to invest in education, healthcare, infrastructure, and economic empowerment within African nations, especially those that have borne the brunt of exploitation,” Nwoko stated.
The lawmaker’s statement titled ‘Demand for Reparations and Neocolonialism Mitigation in African Nations’ harped on the need to urgently address issues of historical injustices and neocolonialism that have left an indelible mark on the African continent.
He recalled that, Africa, particularly Nigeria, bore witness to an unimaginable saga of human suffering and exploitation noting specifically that “the transatlantic slave trade tore families apart and scarred our collective memory, inflicting anguish and despair across generations.