Historical knowledge and National Development

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Remijius Obinta


A few introductory remarks might be useful to establish the importance of history to the task of nation-building. History is the collective memory of any given society and professional historians are the accredited custodians of that memory. Some older and better-established democracies had leveraged upon their histories to get to where they are presently. The case of the United States of America readily comes to mind. A deep knowledge of the American history or the American dream was the irreducible minimum for a patriotic citizen of that Country. The American dream was for all Americans to collaborate and build an egalitarian society where equal rights for all would be guaranteed and protected. His or her occupational specialisation notwithstanding, an American is versed in its history and very proud of same.


The same cannot be said about Nigerians and Nigeria’s history. True enough, historians were actively involved in the nationalist movements that decolonised Nigeria. The University College, Ibadan (established 1948) was the intellectual hotbed where it all started. Professor Kenneth Onwuka Dike (the first African Professor of history and the first indigenous Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan) led a team of pioneer academic historians in aggressive intellectual decolonisation.  They successfully deconstructed all the Eurocentric imperial claims ascribing all products of ingenuity in Africa to European inspirations. What flowered at that citadel was later known as the Ibadan School of History.


At the dawn of Nigeria’s independence, the nationalist zest and patriotism of the Nigerian academics (and historians especially) was not in doubt. They all worked towards building a nation of unity in diversity. They aspired to build a nation where, in spite of the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural nature of Nigeria, the rights and privileges of each individual would be guaranteed. However, this lofty dream was to be dashed with the collapse of the First Republic on the 15th of January, 1966. With the January Coup d’état of 1966 and the July counter Coup of the same year, the Ibadan School of History could no longer stand as one. Prof K.O. Dike (an Igbo academic) was relieved of his position as Professor of History and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan on the grounds of ethnicity. Prof Eni Njoku (the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos) suffered similar fate.


This spirit of mutual mistrusts (arising from ethnic sentiments) affected the Nigerian University system. Serious doubts were cast on the question as to whether the project called Nigeria was actually a country or cohabitation by ethnic nationalities only pretending to have built a country. By the time the Nigerian Civil War had ended in 1970, the Universities of Ibadan, Ife, Nsukka, Lagos and Zaria Departments of History began to view Nigerian history in new perspectives relative to recent developments. All of these led to serious setbacks in the task of building the Nigerian nation that could benefit the citizenry.


Moreover, another development later set in to further undermine the acquisition of Nigeria’s historical knowledge. This had to do with what may be referred to as the “marketization or knowledge”. Applicants for university admissions in Nigeria began to choose courses of studies on the basis of what jobs these courses could fetch after school. Some courses were considered abysmally incapable of fetching good jobs, and history was prominent among such courses. This market-imposed difficulty created identity crises for the departments of history across Nigerian universities. Many of them soon felt compelled to modify their institutional nomenclatures to stay afloat. They began to bear such names as the: Department of History and Strategic Studies; History and International Relations; History and Diplomatic Studies; History and Archaeology among others. All the above were survival strategies against under subscriptions by intending undergraduates. Only three Departments at Ibadan, Ife and Zaria, respectively, remained Department of History and are still in business.


The Federal Government of Nigeria had earlier removed history from the curriculum of the junior secondary schools. It has now reversed itself by reintroducing history into the secondary schools. In the opinion of this article, the government should even do more. It should reintroduce the Nigeria History and Culture (a General Studies Course for non-history Nigerian undergraduates) back into the Universities. This would enable all Nigerian graduates to be versed in aspects of Nigeria’s history and be abreast of its socio-cultural values and heritage. A deep knowledge of Nigerian history will foster the feelings of nationhood which had eluded the country hitherto. In the editions that will follow in the weeks and months ahead, we shall be reflecting together on the aspects of Nigeria’s history that could benefit the search for a true nation where Nigerians could have access to true citizenship with all the rights and privileges thereto pertaining.


R.F. Obinta teaches at the Department of History, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

































  

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