Public policy experts have charged the Federal Government to restore and make history a compulsory subject at both elementary and secondary levels in schools.
This was the submission in the communiqué of the Book Reading of the ‘Nigeria In The Twentieth
Century: History, Governance, And Society’ held at the Ibadan School Of
The book was edited by Prof. Olutayo Adesina of the Department of History at the University of Ibadan (UI) and chairman of the event was Amb. Ayo Olukanni.
The statement stated that the removal of History, as a subject of study, from the curricular of
secondary education in Nigeria is antithetical to the prospects for
nation building and national development.
They charged the government to restore and possibly make it mandatory at both elementary and secondary levels of education in Nigeria.
Pertinent issues about the reconstruction of
Nigerian history were discussed especially as it relates to contemporary
socio-political developments in Nigeria. In addition, the reading of the book was
primarily to interrogate the conjectures and trajectory of Nigeria’s historical
evolution from pre-colonial to modern times, it inadvertently touched on
subject matters of Federalism and the National Question; Gender and
Development; Decentralization and Local Government System; Anti-corruption as well as Nigeria’s Foreign policy.
Another suggestion made in the communiqué for policy formulation is that a centennial history project that captures the social, political,
economic, physical and cultural development of Nigeria should be
embarked upon by the government and historians, so as to define the
most important developmental challenges and chart a course for
development planning and implementation for Nigeria ahead of the
next century. It added that the full potentials of Nigeria’s Federal structure would be maximally realized if adequate and timely attention is paid to the alignment of
intra-governmental relations along the principles of greater devolution
of powers and fiscal independence which potentially strengthens
financial autonomy of states and promotes a greater sense of national
identity among the peoples of Nigeria.
“There is a need to widen the scope, processes and means of Historical
Knowledge production, translation and communication. There should
be an inclusion and integration of producers of non written intellectual
formats such as audio and audiovisual productions as well as cultural
distillation avenues of films, theatres and music” said the communiqué in part.
In his speech, Executive Vice-Chairman, ISGPP, Dr. Tunji Olaopa, said; “while other Readers Clubs all around Nigeria are addressing the basic literacy side of the poor reading culture, ISGPP’s Readers Club events will strive to provide platforms to interrogate the information and knowledge gaps in Nigeria’s future possibilities, leveraging problem-solving documented ideas, frameworks, models, paradigms and researched insights, to deepen issues and conversation that have critical bearing on the Nigerian and African condition”.
According to the author, Prof Adesina, the intention of the book therefore, is to provide historical information in a
simple, yet intelligent manner which will be accessible to members of the public. By writing history, the author seeks to arouse public interest on national issues, and provide a narration of past events in Nigeria, he hopes to revive the fledgling reading culture, halt the decline of the history discipline, create an
historical consciousness among Nigerians and encourage other historians to explore and write about.
Lecturer Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ibadan, Dr. Nathaniel Danjibo
Director of Bilficom Media, Mr. Edmund Obilo and Founder/Executive Director, Mentoring Assistance for Youths & Entrepreneurs Initiative (MAYEIN), Mrs. Edem Ossai were some of the experts that attended the event
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