A Pathway To Nigeria’s Grave

A man who does not remember the past is condemned to repeat it.

The late Professor Chinua Achebe never lied when he asserted in his book, The Trouble with Nigeria that; “The only thing Nigerians learn from experience is that we learn nothing from experience.”

Nigeria-mapHow can Nigerians learn from experience when they do not want to study the history of the past? History is ubiquitous. There is no country that does not have a history. History is the study of past and present events, which enables us predict the future. Therefore, history must be studied.

Extinction of history from Nigeria’s curriculum will indeed lead to Nigeria’s grave because history is one inalienable means in nation building by intergroup relations among constituent groups of a geo-political entity.

History fosters unity and cohesion.
If the present young Nigerians never read about the Civil War fought between 1967-1970 and the challenges faced, the lives and properties that were lost and destroyed, they would perhaps want to go into another war due to ethnic crises in Nigeria.

Ethnic crises
Professor Kyari Mohammed, the Vice Chancellor of Modibbo Adama University of Technology, MAUTECH,Yola in an interview with Vanguard asserted; “We (Nigerians) have young people who have no idea of their history.

Some sense of historical consciousness and knowledge of history will add substantially to our understanding of ourselves as citizens of Nigeria.”

Recently, in President Goodluck Jonathan’s address during the flag activities, marking the centenary celebrations, he said; “We owe it to ourselves, to past generations and to the future generations to tell our own story, the story of our experience, our challenges and most certainly our strides within the continent of the world.”

Who would teach the coming generation the history of our country? Who would tell the story of this great nation when history has been scraped from the curriculum?

Speaking at the 2014 NNPC and Chevron National Art Competition, CNAC held at the Muson Centre, Lagos, Lagos state’s First Lady, Mrs. Abimbola Fashola, who frowned at the removal of history as a subject from the curriculum said we need to put history back into Nigeria’s curriculum.

Still arguing in favour of restoration of history, she said that the documentation of heroes of a particular field of study which students read about and are challenged is history on its own.

It will be recalled that at a different fore, Professor Ayodeji Olukoju and other stakeholders in the education sector had spoken in favour of the restoration of History as a subject into Nigeria’s curriculum.

“Without history how would we have known that Maiduguri had contact with Spain even before the state of Nigeria came into existence? How would we know how Sakkeatto became Sokoto? How would we know that the four market days of the Igbo are the same with that of Bini?

The present Oba of Lagos during the last kingship scurried part of his claim to the forgotten Akinsemoyin Dynasty. He had to establish filial linkage to this forgotten Monarch that collaborated with the Portuguese and took Lagos to its acme.

Without history how would we know that what we have and see as Lagos today are all breaths of the Oodua, Bini Kingdom and The Portuguese?

“The word Lagos is Portuguese meaning Lagoon. Eko is Bini word meaning Camp. Bajulaiye is a Yoruba corruption of the Bini name Bazuaye.

Today my study and proper knowledge of history worldwide has served me as VISA to audiences around the world. It has won me friends and gotten me out of trouble severally.

I am proud of History and my great History teachers.”

History teachers
On his part, Mr. Gold Force said; “I saw this coming while growing up; as I sought to know exactly what led up to the Civil War and what really happened during the war. My father told me his own side of the history having fought on Biafran side.

Yet, there is an official historical account of the 1996 programme and the Nazi-styled extermination of millions of Igbo civilians in the defunct Biafra-via starvation. Therefore, how can the present generation draw useful lessons from the war and prevent another one from occurring?”

“For a nation to scrap the compulsory study of history, which has shaped great nations like USA and Britain into what they are today, is to say the least, the greatest atrocity a nation can commit against its present and unborn generations.

How can then a nation know where she is heading to without a sense of where she was coming from?”
Posterity will never forgive the present crop of Nigeria leadership for committing this crime against humanity.” He concluded.

Mr. Brown Eredia, while lending credence to the foregoing asserted, “They stole our commonwealth, they mortgaged our future, took away our pride, and now still want to take away our history. History is a people’s memory, and without a memory, man is demoted to lower animals.

Speaking on the other hand, Mr Okwu averred, “They removed History because they want Nigerian youths to be developed on the lies they wanted to persist about the nation.

That’s why today, if one wants to insist on the truth being told, he or she would be accused of opening old wounds. Yet a people without their true history are just as equivalent to animals without the conscious memory of their past, because it is conscious memory that separates animals from humans.”

When we obliterate history, we should also destroy our artefacts, burn our museums and monuments, heritage sites and archaeological activities. A generation of Nigerians without knowledge of history would not appreciate these treasures.

Now that the present Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau is seeing the reinstatement of History in Nigeria school’s curriculum as inevitable, it is high time he swung into action to restore it.

Restoration of history in Nigeria’s school curriculum will help in the development of the country and nation building. It should not only be restored, it should be made a compulsory subject in the education sector, if not all departments but for those in arts department. (Vanguard)