Mahmood Isiaka writes:
Nigeria’s leadership must kindly raise the issue of reparations negotiation framework with Germany. Tanzania has already secured a formal apology from the German president, Frank- Walter Steinmeier. Namibia is in the final stages of sealing a billion-euro compensation deal. And Nigeria? Silence. Every day of silence from the giant of Africa strengthens Germany’s denial.
On August 14 2025, the German ruling coalition dismissed Africa’s claims for reparations. If Nigeria stays passive, the history German colonial atrocities will be written without us. Silence risks handing Germany an excuse to dismiss future claims, hiding behind the August 14,2025 statement of Germany’s government which bluntly rejects any African demands for reparations.
Reparations are not charity, but debt.
A debt Germany owes to the African dead and to the living who carry their scars. It took more than a hundred years for a German government official to acknowledge the country’s colonial actions in Africa.
In 2018, the ruling coalition of the conservative block and social Democratic parties agreed to take a fresh look at Germany’s colonial past.
That fresh look took a long time in coming, compensating the victims should materialize now as a way of confronting its past moral failures.
