On the streets of Lagos, “No story,” means “Spare me the explanations for failure to carry out an assigned task.” But some stories, like history, need to be told, for the benefit of the present and future members of any society. So, those who took history out of Nigeria’s school system did more harm than the Boko Haram terrorists and Niger Delta militants put together.
History professor, Ayodeji Olukoju, observes: “We are currently faced with an identity crisis, and that is why we do not see each other as a people of a common identity, cut out to pursue our common heritage and goals.” The collective of nations that make up Nigeria know not each other. They should know their differences (and similarities), as Ahmadu Bello recommended, not forget it, as Nnamdi Azikiwe suggested.
Some argue that the young, idealistic members of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra, it is supposed, do not know much about the “30-month fratricidal war that claimed over two million Igbo lives, and pauperised those who survived…”
They add: A “majority of Igbo youths, who did not experience the civil war… discuss the deeply perceived third class status (of the Igbo) in present day Nigeria (with) burning desire for… Biafra, (but) the more elderly… Igbo are reluctant to support another armed struggle…”
Prof Yemi Akinyeyi, of University of Lagos, laments: “Every Nigerian group is behaving like a stranger to the other; hence, there is no collective interest…” He attributes this partly to the removal of history from the school curriculum, and likens it to “throwing someone into the wilderness.”
Obafemi Awolowo’s quip that Nigeria is a mere geographical expression, oft quoted with mischief and malice, has been further elongated by those who say that Nigeria’s problem has longitudinal, latitudinal, and attitudinal dimensions. That’s just grandiloquence that the further in time, and the farther in distance, Nigerians are from each other, the farther apart their world views.
Just for one second, consider the lyrics of the musical, “Oklahoma!” by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II: “The farmer and the cowman should be friends /Oh, the farmer and the cowman should be friends /One loves to push the plough /The other loves to push the cow /But that’s no reason why they can’t be friends.”
You see, the cowman loves to push his cow on the same land where the farmer loves to push his plough. Failure to understand it from each other’s point of view will cause a permanent rift between them, whereas they could be true confederates, or colleagues. They could even be firm friends.
To achieve this, they could borrow the ethnographer’s tool, and experience each other’s everyday life, and drink from the fount of history, by reading up on each other. Nigerians need to adopt this measure so that historians Kenneth Dike, Adiele Afigbo and J.F. Ade Ajayi can rest easy in their graves.
Poet Odia Ofeimun, who thinks that Nigerians “ignore uncomfortable facts in our history as if that will eliminate the problem,” suggests a “reinterpretation of Nigeria’s history, away from the general distrust that has frozen out the study of history from the nation’s educational system.”
Olukoju adds: ”We are also experiencing several societal challenges because we do not have a common objective as a people.” He regrets that “Many of today’s (younger) generation do not know who they are, and where they are coming from.”
If you’ve heard 20+-year-old Nigerians ask what is the relevance of Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola to Nigeria’s democracy, you’ll know the depth of their ignorance of contemporary Nigerian history. If kids do not remember Abiola, they won’t remember Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Bode Thomas, Ernest Seesi Ikoli, or Alvan Ikoku, whose portrait adorns Nigeria’s five naira note.
A plaque on the wall of Albert Einstein’s Princeton University office says, “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” Nonetheless, Socrates admonishes, “Man, know thyself.” Someone says that a man who does not know where he is coming from may not know where he is going to.
Herbert Butterfield argues, “A people that lived without the knowledge of its past – without any serious attempt to organise its history – would hardly (expect) to make much progress in its civilisation.” History is usually a chronological and systematic record of causes and explanations of significant events in the life of a nation or an institution.
Gareth E. Jones writes, “At whatever level history is studied, (it) is likely to result in more active and inquiring minds, a more refined and critical judgment, a greater understanding of present-day society… and an increased enjoyment of the historical artifacts left by our ancestors, (to make us) even better citizens.”
The intention of Nigeria’s National Policy on Education to build a society, that is free and democratic; just and egalitarian; united, strong and self-reliant; great and dynamic; and full of opportunities for all its citizens, must be coming from the correct thinking that history is a veritable tool for training civilised citizens.
Prof Babs Fafunwa explains that the African system of education emphasises social responsibility, job orientation and ethics, political participation, and spiritual and moral values. Ancient Sparta, Greece, and Rome, all taught history as part of the acculturation and orientation plan for their citizens.
Pre-colonial African communities consciously handed down their cultures to succeeding generations through oral traditions. As it is in culture, so it is with inheritance. A Lagos chieftain once explained the Yoruba land tenure to the British colonialists in roughly the following words: “A land is kept by the living, in trust for the dead ancestors, and the succeeding descendants.”
Olukoju points out that “Our history and language are windows to our culture, which bind us together as one… Without proper grounding on these, people are rootless.” As the currency is the store of economic value, so is history the store of culture.
Olukoju adds: “History is (the) collective knowledge of our past and present, and we need to know who we are. If you (can’t) define your identity, the danger is that other people will define it for you!” “O gwu la!”End of story, to borrow a phrase from the Igbo. It’s actually like killing the soul softly.
You are probably feeling enough outrage to ask for the head of the individual who recommended that history be taken out of Nigeria’s school system. Though the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council recommended Social Studies and Civic Education throughout the nine-year Basic Education curriculum, it omits history, the mother of them all.
History explains the past and present, and attempts to predict, or condition, the future. It enables man to view himself and his society in proper perspectives; focus on human motives and the consequences of their actions; and enhance his knowledge of his potential, as well as his limitations.
Happily, Prof Akinyeyi reports that the Federal Government will soon return history to the schools. For Nigerians, like the Pentecostals, to say “Not my portion,” to the scripture, “My people perish for lack of knowledge,” government must declare a state of emergency on the teaching of history. The generations that missed out on formal study of history must be redeemed before they become a danger to society!
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