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Nigerian Legislators, why can’t History be a core subject?

"He who does not know where the rain started beating him will never know where it stopped beating him." Igbo proverb.

Nigerian Legislators, why can’t History be a core subject?

He who does not know where the rain started beating him will never know where it stopped beating him.

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Igbo proverb.

The above proverb came into my mind immediately I stumbled upon the Premium Times news story on November 10, 2016, that the Nigerian Legislature rejected a bill to make history a core subject citing the word “core” attached to the bill was somehow and problematic.

I just could not believe it. It was a new low to what we are used to with the legislature, thus, making me further to realize that there might be an orchestrated plan by the older generation to deny younger and future Nigerians the knowledge of who they are as Nigerians and the past struggles of the country, of the groups in the country as well as the vast multi-disciplinary   information stored in History as regards their identity.

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Now let us go memory lane. Two years, the Federal government banned the teaching of History in Primary and secondary schools, citing the dearth of History teachers and the lack of the interest from the students towards the subject. This was received with shock from the public and academia.

Then, in May 2016, the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, a Federal Executive member was quoted that the Federal Government was taking steps to restore history as a subject in Primary and Secondary schools’ curriculum.

Though till today, I still do not understand those reasons because I am still looking for a more befitting word apart from flimsy in the description of the lameness of those excuses as reasons. Based on my experience as a secondary school student, many subjects taught to students were never interesting at first, but with consistency and highlighting the importance of that subject, we learned to love such subjects.

History is an identity builder. Self and group identity formations are very critical in defining who a person and a group are. Without history, one can at a certain point be ascribed as empty because man naturally is inquisitive of his past, when a generation is denied the history of their country came to be, one wonders how that generation will get to define itself.

A foreigner will not be wrong to wonder what then is the role of the older generation of a country to the younger generation when the former fails to teach the latter their history. That is the disservice Nigerian Legislature is doing to the young Nigerians.

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Without looking farther, Hon. Ayodeji Oladimeji from Ekiti state, the sponsor of that bill was able to solve the problem of both students being uninterested and lack of availability of History teachers when he proposed that the History should be made compulsory via making it a core subject which I understood to be prerequisite, like English Language and Mathematics, for Nigerian students to pass before moving to the next class or next stage of formal education.

What core means in relation to the reasons given by Federal Government two years to the dearth of History in the country, is that because of its compulsory nature, employment will be available for Historians and students will be interested to study it, if not for anything, to pass the exam and move over to the next stage of their academic pursuit and more persons will be interested to pursue it as a career once the importance has been shown consistently.

A major voice in stifling the passage of that bill was Hon. Zakari Mohammed from Kwara state. His words -  “ I know it’s important for a people to know their history, but the word ‘core’ in the title of the bill is somehow” - were the basis the bill was rejected by the whole house.  Now this is where I failed to understand the legislators.

They had acknowledged its importance but were still uncomfortable with the whole younger generations knowing their history. Are they afraid that the compulsory nature of learning our collective history will birth uncomfortable questions from the younger generations in the future about the entity Nigeria?

Are they not prepared for these questions in the future? Should knowing one’s history not be the first thing any individual should do before proceeding in Life let alone the collective history of a people? Or are they indirectly unsure and doubting the importance of History in the first place? Do they want a generation second-guessing who they are as Nigerians, how they came to be Nigerians and what is Nigeria?

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A look around the country will show that the effect of the gradual death of history which was finally buried two years ago by the Federal Government can no longer be said but felt with a continuum of mistakes that had happened before which the country is yet to learn from.

For the sake of posterity, survival of the country and not grooming future generations that will ask such humiliating questions like What is Nigeria and Why are we Nigerians, the Nigerian legislators will answer the title question and get their acts right as soon as possible.

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