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A Nigerian lecturer based in the United States, Prof Emeka Aniagolu, on Tuesday, described the 2009 scrapping of history from the primary and secondary school curriculum as a bad idea.
The don, who taught African history at Ohio Wesleyan University and a private university in Columbus, raised concerns that failure to allow the younger generation to learn about their ancestry and the reconstruction of past events could induce a form of amnesia in society.
Aniagolu voiced his concern in Abuja at the pre-launch of his new book, “A Tale of Ikenga,” a historiography of the Igbo people written to correct some misconceptions.
The professor also stated that it is a known fact that most youngsters being recruited as freedom fighters of the proscribed group, Indigenous People of Biafra, were neither born during the Nigerian Civil War nor familiar with its account.
He said, “That (scrapping) was a very foolish move on the part of the Nigerian government. There is no society anywhere in the world that has done away with teaching history because some bad things happened in the past. That is simply absurd. You teach history because you want to remember what went wrong so that you don’t repeat those mistakes.
“You don’t consciously decide to induce a form of amnesia to the society, which creates the context or the possibility for repeating the same thing when people don’t remember what happened.
“Let me give another instance. Some of these youngsters involved in IPOB (activities) were not born during the Civil War. They have no idea what War was like. Not even an inkling. If they were taught judiciously in school or routinely about the Civil War, they will know that talking about war or the things that could lead to it is a very serious business.”
His concerns came three months after former President Olusegun Obasanjo described the removal of history as a subject from the nation’s education curriculum as a huge disaster.
Obasanjo voiced his disapproval at the Africa Methodist Council Heads of Conference Summit and Women’s Movement Leadership Summit, where he gave a public lecture.
The Federal Government had removed history from primary and secondary schools’ curriculums.
Recall that former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua-led government removed the subject from the 2009/2010 academic session over claims that only a few history graduates are interested in taking up teaching jobs.
Following pressure from stakeholders, the government ordered the reintroduction of the subject in the school curriculum in the 2020/2021 session.
Former Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, performed the inauguration ceremony of the reintroduction of the teaching of history and training of history teachers at the basic education level in Abuja.
But Aniagolu believed denying young Nigerians access to vital historical knowledge for 13 years could haunt the nation.
Continuing, the don said he was embarrassed to discover at a recent religious function that even his young aide neither recognised nor heard of former Military Head of State, Gen Yakubu Gowon while exchanging pleasantries with him.
“Yesterday, I was at a function, and a former Head of State in this country, Gen Yakubu Gowon, came in. I was with my assistant, who is a young lady in her twenties. So I introduced her to him (Gowon) as Nigeria’s former head of state. But the poor girl still has no idea and mistook him for one of those politicians we have around.
“The point I am making is that it is impossible to go to the US and ask a high school student if he knows George Washington, whose era was even further back in history, and he will tell you ‘Oh, I think he is an American politician.’ No, that is because they teach them history and a series of other courses every day to replenish their sense of being an American,” he stated.
