Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his counterpart from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, have reiterated calls for reparations for African countries from their former colonial masters.

The former l’aders spoke on Saturday at the ongoing CANEX WKND in Lagos.

The panel meeting was titled ‘A Conversation Inspired by Lest I Forget’ – a book by Prof. Paulette Angela Ramsay, professor of Afro-Hispanic Literatures and Cultures, Jamaica.

Obasanjo, who set the tone for the conversation, said it was heartening to note that former slaves in different parts of the world are beginning to get their lives back on an even keel.

While making an oblique reference to the just-concluded midterm elections in the United States, where some black people of Nigerian descent have not only fully integrated into the USA but are now citizens enjoying privileges hitherto the preserve of the natives.

“I’m happy with the outcome of the midterm elections in the USA for many reasons,” Obasanjo enthused, adding that this has now shown that former slaves can become just as important as original citizens of the US.

Expatiating, he said, “Yes, we have come here, but we are now part and parcel of here. We were brought here involuntarily, but voluntarily we are achieving, and we will continue to achieve.

“Nobody would say there was no holocaust. There was Holocaust. There was slave trade. Millions of Africans died. As a Christian, we will forgive them if they show remorse to us for the atrocities. But we must never forget.”

Echoing similar sentiments, Gonsalves said it was heartening to note that since March 25th, 2026, there has been a reawakening in the international community about the horrors of the slave trade, especially the unpleasant memories it left in the minds of Africans and Caribbean people.

“Since March 25th, 2026, the United Nations General Assembly has noted that the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and enslavement of Africans have been acknowledged and declared by the highest international body in the world as a great crime against humanity.

“In essence, reparation is about repairing the contemporary legacies of underdevelopment and the genocide of the African bodies. No one can live in the past, but in this respect, we have to have this structured conversation for reparations for Africa,” Gonsalves stressed.

Lending credence to the foregoing, Prof. Ramsay said the conversation around reparations was inevitable if the wrongs of the past must be addressed. (The Nation)