BODIJA JOURNAL | A Philosophico-Theologal Journal

Memories often stand in the way of complete national integration. This is especially true of Nigeria, a multicultural, multireligious and multiethnic entity. This paper examines the various types of memories necessary for Nigeria?s national identity, with particular emphasis on individual and collective memories which detail legacies of past injustices. It also examines the instrumental use of memory in constructing ethnic and religious categories. These memories, it argues, influence contemporary projects of reconciliation and national unity. It asserts that Nigeria is paying a big price for not dealing with her past, ignoring it in the hopes that such past would be forgotten, inadvertently denying justice to the victims of her tumultuous past by her refusal to demand accountability from public officials alleged to have committed crimes against humanity. Thus, it recommends an urgent imperative to acknowledge traumatic events in the Nigerian past in order to transcend to a process of historical interrogation through which the pains and burdens of such memories become tolerable, and the critical work towards the collective end of reconciliation and national unity can begin.

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