Director of the Abuja School of Social and Political Thought, Dr Sam Amadi, has said Nigeria’s inability to properly document and investigate major national events has created room for conflicting narratives about its history.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE News on Tuesday, Amadi said the controversy surrounding former Head of State General Sani Abacha’s death persists because there has been no official closure or clear account of what happened.
“I think the interest is because there’s no closure, no official closure, no clear statements.”
Amadi said the absence of credible records on significant events involving national leaders reflects a broader problem with how Nigeria handles its history.
“But the real question is, why don’t we have official autography, official statements, official closure to issues, especially about a very high level national event?”
He stated that competing accounts from individuals who were close to Abacha’s administration highlight the need for independent institutions responsible for preserving historical records.
“There should be some records, some videos, something somewhere in Aso Rock that could tell us exactly what happened to our president.”
According to Amadi, Nigeria needs non-partisan institutions similar to national archives in other countries, whose responsibility would be to document events without political influence.
“If you don’t have a clear, nonpartisan institution, whose job is simply to record history, then you continue to have these kinds of problems.”
He said proper documentation of history is essential for national development because it allows future generations to learn from past decisions and failures.
“You need to know how policies were driven and failed, you need to know so that tomorrow you can create policies that can borrow from the wisdom of this failure.”
Amadi also defended the importance of memoirs and personal accounts, saying while they may be disputed, they contribute to the process of understanding history.
“Yes, his views might be contentious, might be biased, might be contentious, as the case might be. But again, this is more to put at the history there.”
He emphasized that Nigeria must move away from avoiding difficult conversations about its past and instead create systems that preserve facts for future generations.
“We have a national pastime of denial, of not confronting our history, of not trying to find that.”
Amadi concluded that understanding how leaders govern and how major events occur is critical to building a stronger nation.
“A nation should be seen as eternal. It keeps going, it keeps changing, it gets older, it gets eternal.”
Ojo Triumph
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