By Ishaya Ibrahim
Former director general of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group, Professor Anya O. Anya, has said that Nigeria has failed to make progress because its leaders refused to learn from the mistakes that led to the 30 months old civil war.
Anya, a professor of parasitology, made the remark in his capacity as the chairman of the Never Again conference, an event to mark the end of the Nigerian Civil war 50 year ago.
“Nigerians have not reflected the past 50 years since the Civil War ended. This is the first.
“Our situation is not unique. Other countries have gone through this. For example, some historians suggest that because of the reparation and other post war injustices the Germans thought was imposed on them, that was why they were involved in the Second World War.
“In other words, justice for all is important if we must avoid wars.
“The second point I want to make is that this conference we are holding now should have held 40 years ago or 30 years ago. But it is better late than never.
“Nigerians have to reflect on the past. Take the Eastern Nigeria region for example, some works by some economists at the at Michigan State University have said Eastern Nigeria was the fastest growing industrial area in the whole world. They didn’t say in Africa. They said in the whole world.
“Germany fought the World War and Lost. Japan fought the World War and lost. But in less than 40 years, Germany became the largest economy in Europe, stronger than the economies of the winners.
“Japan was the second largest economy after the United States until the miracle of China started. In other words, losing a war does not necessarily mean you are a badge of failure. If you do your home work well and you create an environment where there is no victor and no vanquish as General Gowon declared.
“We would have become pace setters if we learned from our past. But we have not learnt lessons from our past,” he said.