Nigeria must work hard to prevent anything that would make it go into another civil war after the devastating events that led to the three years of blitzkrieg in the country between 1967 and 1970.

Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s former President and longest serving leader – military and civilian – stressed this warning on Wednesday, while reliving the events of the notorious era and its impact on the country over the decades since it ended.

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It was a day the former President, a veteran of the war, who in fact, received the surrender documents from the Biafran side after the surrender, also explained that even with its woeful effects, some of the issues that led to the war still lingered among the citizens and institutions in the country.

Obasanjo, who went ahead to become a military Head of State, six years after,  in 1976 before ending up as civilian President some 23 years in 1999, spoked at the presentation of “Asaba Massacre,” a historical document on Nigeria’s Civil War, written by Chuck Nduka-Eze, the Isama Aje of Asaba, at the Olusegun Obasanjo Library (OOPL), Abeokuta.

The document, also in audio-visual form, according to the author, was grounded in a substantial and carefully cross-referenced body of evidence, including eyewitness testimonies, recorded interviews, archival materials, audio-visual documentation, and established historical scholarship.

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Giving insight on his own views and knowledge about the war, as well as his participation, the former President, said for instance that he was not away of the details of the “Asaba Massacre” because the area fell under the command of the late Murtala Muhammed, the man who he took over as military leader, after his assassination in the 1976 military coup.

Commending the author for the work, he stressed there were questions people had asked him about Murtala’s role in the civil war and Asaba operations, which he could not comment on, promising to go through the compilation of the transcript and the audio-visual materials.

His words: “We pride ourselves that we preserve the past, we capture the present, and we inspire the future. We capture the past, and this is the past; we want to capture it, we want to know about it. I must confess and you know that I was involved in the civil war. When people talk about Asaba massacre, I always confess that I cannot give details of it.”

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On his own part, he stated that he made sure he did not overreach his own briefs during the conflict, citing an incident when he prevented a soldier from raping a woman in Asaba, which would have led to him having vicarious liabilities.

He stated: “Some of the things that led to the civil war are still on. Now, how long will this be with us? I was with a colleague when General Yakubu Gowon said, ‘We will not survive a second civil war as a country’, and which, I believe, that we have fought one civil war too many already.

“So, to say that we will have a second civil war, God forbid. And getting ourselves to know some of what happened, and to say yes, we condemn what happened that should not have happened, and then make sure that we do everything humanly possible to prevent its recurrence.

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“And then, for us to be able to say, ‘never again’. What are we going to have for us to be able to say, ‘never again’?

“Thank you very much for making people to know about it, for people to learn about it, and for people to take a vow that never again. And I say to you, never. I will do everything possible to say never.”

Nduka-Eze, who described his efforts in his book, said it was a substantial and carefully cross-referenced body of evidence, including eyewitness testimonies, recorded interviews, archival materials, audio visual documentation, and established historical scholarship.

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Explaining that he relied on independent sources, he said a clear and consistent account emerged of events following the entry of federal troops into Asaba, then a civilian population centre in the Mid-West region, leading to what had been documented as one of the most telling aspects of the conflict.

His words: “The evidence establishes a recurring pattern. Civilians were assembled in public places under conditions of fear and uncertainty. During these assemblies, residents were required to proclaim allegiance to the Nigerian state, including being instructed to declare ‘One Nigeria’ and otherwise demonstrate loyalty.

“In a setting where identity and suspicion had become dangerously intertwined, these acts were understood by those present as affirmations of belonging and safety. Men were then separated from women and children.

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“Thereafter, unarmed male civilians were killed in a manner consistently described across multiple independent accounts. Compliance with these demands did not secure protection. The sequence, repeated across testimonies, reflects a tragic contradiction in which individuals who openly affirmed their identity and loyalty as Nigerians were, nonetheless, killed in the most undignified manner by the same Nigerian state that they pledged their allegiance to.

“This sequence is corroborated by testimonies, documentary materials, and scholarly works, and remains materially unchallenged. While precise casualty figures cannot be definitively fixed, the convergence of credible evidence points to a substantial loss of civilian lives (over a thousand men) and a profound rupture in the fabric of the Asaba community.”

Echoing Obasanjo’s warning, he maintained also that some of the issues that led to the civil war were still with the country, including the continued existence of suspicion among ethnic groups in the country.

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