In this illuminating episode, I sit down with human rights lawyer, activist, and filmmaker Chuck Nduka Eze to uncover one of Nigeria’s most silenced atrocities. the Asaba Massacre of 1967, when federal troops executed more than a thousand civilians in the Eastern Delta during the Nigerian Civil War. Eze, whose own mother was among those killed, recounts the events that unfolded on October 7th, a day the people of Asaba still mourn nearly sixty years later.

Drawing from his testimony before the Nigerian Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission and his forthcoming documentary on the massacre, he traces how a community once known for peace was shattered by a campaign of violence, and how the survivors have struggled for truth and recognition in the decades since.

The conversation dives into the politics of denial, the psychological toll of state-sanctioned violence, and the moral weight of remembrance in a country that has never officially apologized. Eze also reflects on forgiveness, interethnic reconciliation, and the power of storytelling as resistance — showing how Asaba’s call for unity, even amid devastation, redefines what it means to belong to “one Nigeria.”

From the roots of the Biafran War to the global implications of historical amnesia, this episode offers an unflinching meditation on justice, memory, and the human capacity for healing. If you’re interested in African history, transitional justice, or the struggle to confront buried truths, this conversation is both an education and an act of remembrance.

#nigerianhistory #forgottenhistory #politicspodcast

Details of Nduka Eze’s Documentary and other resources are here: https://asabamemorialmonument.org

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