Paper short abstract:

As loud as the agitations are for the return of cultural relics stolen from Nigeria during the early days of colonialism, a nuanced reparation in form of restitutions for local improprieties, remain obscure. Charity must begin at home with local reparations before it can be demanded from abroad.

Paper long abstract:

Over half a century after Nigeria’s political independence from Britain, there have been several campaigns for the reparation of her priceless cultural relics, looted by European expeditionists at the dawn of her colonialisation. These campaigns for the return of those cultural assets to their ancestral homes, and for the commensurate compensations to their original custodians, are considered by many Afrocentric literature as well conceived and valid. In a nuanced context however, this study draws attention to the hypocritic dissipation of energy and resources on the reparation narrative of Nigeria’s stolen cultural assets by foreigners, at the expense of focussing critical attention on the huge local pilfering of the nation’s economic and cultural wealth, by local actors since independence, and without recompenses. The dimensions of these indigenous looting have left damning humanitarian consequences in their tracks. This study submits that all manifest acts of misconduct on the part of local actors in positions of public responsibility, which led to negative outcomes on the larger Nigerian society, should have reparations demanded of them in the spirit and letters of the rule of law. This is because, until Nigeria puts her house in order, through a surgical process of self-cleansing and purgation of internal pilfering, illegalities, and institutionalised corruption, the international community, from whom she demands reparations for material and cultural injustices, may not take her seriously. Charity must begin at home. The Nigerian homestead must be tidied up to house the recovered relics being demanded from foreign lands.