Nigeria and Germany have signed an accord for the return of 1,130 Benin Bronzes, a pact that Nigerian officials hope will prompt other countries to follow suit. THE WILLS reports.

In a statement presented by Segun Adeyemi, Special Assistant on Media to the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Muhammed, said many of the 1,130 looted Benin Bronzes got to German institutions via trade and donations. Information Guide Nigeria

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Mohammed and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Amb. Zubairu Dada, signed the declaration for Nigeria, while the German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ms Annalena Baerbock and the Minister of State for Culture and Media, Ms Claudia Roth, represented the European nation at the forum in Berlin.

The minister said the joint declaration would pave the way for the return of the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria, adding that Germany did not colonise Nigeria and was not part of the looting of the artefacts. jamb results

Mohammed recalled that the artefacts were looted from the ancient Benin Kingdom during the British forces’ expedition to Benin in 1897. He thanked the government and people of Germany for the single largest repatriation of artefacts anywhere in the world.

He said: “We also want to most sincerely thank the authorities of the various German regions, cities, museums and institutions, that have been working in concert to ensure the manifestation of the history-making event that we are witnessing today.

“By this singular action, Germany has taken the lead in correcting the wrongs of the past. Germany has gained more friends in Nigeria and all over the world by returning to Nigeria what rightfully belongs to it.”

On his part, Dada described Germany as the champion of justice and fairness.

A British colonial expedition looted vast quantities of treasures in 1897 from the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin, including numerous bas-reliefs and sculptures.

The artefacts ended up spreading far and wide. Hundreds were sold to collections such as the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, which has one of the world’s largest groups of historical objects from the Kingdom of Benin, estimated to include about 530 items, including 440 bronzes. Many of them date from the 16th to the 18th centuries.

“This is just the beginning of more than 1,000 pieces from the Kingdom of Benin that are still in German museums, and they all belong to the people of Nigeria. It was wrong to take the bronzes; it was wrong to keep them for 120 years”, German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, said on Friday.

The bronzes “are some of Africa’s greatest treasures, but they are also telling the story of colonial violence”, she added.

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