Nigerians, History And National Memory By Tanure Ojaide on October 18, 2015 3:13 am

map of Nigeria. PHOTO-interamerica

IT is disheartening to know that history is no
longer taught in Nigeria’s secondary schools and
tertiary institutions. Politicians, including a
former governor of Bayelsa State, would want to
abolish the humanities and leave only the hard
sciences.
There we go wrong, ignoring the humanities and
promoting only the hard sciences. I want to add
my voice to those calling for the reinstatement of
history into the curriculum at all levels of
education in Nigeria. It is ironical that at my
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the
history department is one of the largest in the
entire university. I believe this holds true of most
American universities dedicated to the promotion
of knowledge in both the sciences and the
humanities; none is promoted at the expense of
the other. Those who promote education in the
developed countries know the importance of
history in human development in their respective
countries.
Through history a nation builds up a national
ideology, which drives the populace to
nationalism and patriotism. We know the place
of history in the United States, Japan, and China,
among so many countries in promoting a
national ideology. Let me take the case of the
United States. The United States of America is a
concept, as any country should be, and its
exceptionalism brings people from anywhere in
the world to fulfill it.
With history, Americans, from elementary
through middle and high schools first and
through compulsory core history courses in the
university, learn about the founding of their
nation, the declaration of independence, abolition
of slavery, and their triumphs over adversities at
different stages of their national experience. This
knowledge makes every American feel proud of
their nation, which they believe is destined to
always be exceptional among other nations of the
world.
With history not being taught in Nigerian schools,
it is not surprising that the current generation of
Nigerians do not know much or anything about
the Nigerian Civil War (1967-70), an experience
that nearly tore the country apart. People learn
from their past, and Nigeria’s history should
teach contemporary Nigerians, especially the
youths and politicians, certain lessons from that
period of conflict in the country. War as an
option in the civil discourse of a country should
be avoided and every effort should be made to
have a common ground on issues that divide a
people. There appears to be general amnesia and
ignorance among most Nigerians because of the
lack of attention to history and the consequences
of historical experience.
What do most Nigerians really know about the
likes of Herbert Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikiwe,
Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello, and Obafemi
Awolowo? It was a pleasant surprise some weeks
ago when I watched on NTA a feature piece on
Nnamdi Azikiwe, whose nationalist struggle is
comparable to Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah’s,
Tanzania’s Mwalimu Nyerere’s, and Kenya’s
Jomo Kenyatta. After watching the programme, I
was not surprised that Zik of Africa did not
support secession. He was a true nationalist
whose contributions to Nigeria as a nation need
to be taught across the country. Only recently I
saw a book on Obafemi Awolowo being
announced. I watched a programme on how Sir
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was received in the
United States in 1963, I believe.
Streets were lined to see the leader of Africa’s
biggest nation. How things have changed!
However, Nigerians in general need to know and
the young ones in particular need to be taught
about our past leaders so that we can learn from
them. The Ghanaian Akan mythical figure of
Sankofa comes to my mind. Sankofa looks
backwards as it moves forward. Let us not forget
or be ignorant of the past. The past will influence
our present and lead to a much better future if
we learn from its successes and failures.
I have done a lot of traveling and seen
monuments in other countries but not in Nigeria.
The Nigerian nation needs to memorialize its past
heroes and heroines, including historical,
cultural, and folkloric, to raise acute awareness of
what Nigerians have achieved, can achieve, and
can even surpass. If you visit Washington, DC, in
the United States, you will see many sculptures
and memorabilia of American heroes in
museums, parks, and streets.
In London, England, you see their heroes, the
Nelsons and others, in gigantic statues standing
for everyone to see. But this phenomenon is not
confined to the so-called developed countries but
also appears in developing countries such as
Colombia, India, and South Africa that
memorialize their people who have made great
contributions to their respective nations.
In Medellin, Colombia, Bolivar stands tall
everywhere for Colombians to know who
liberated their country (together with Venezuela,
Ecuador, and Peru) through revolution. Go to
Delhi, India, and see so many monuments that
capture their history from the Moguls through
Islamic conquest, colonization to the present.
In addition to Mahatma Gandhi, so many other
national heroes are memorialized in marble or
bronze, parks, and museums. South Africa and
Mexico have the same. Why have we not
memorialized figures such as our nationalist
leaders and the likes of Adekunle Fajuyi, Murtala
Mohammed, Mbonu Ojike, and many others
across the country? Abuja is bare and looks so
sterile. The nation’s capital’s streets make me
laugh with their names. Most ministers and some
discredited leaders have streets named after
them.
There are no streets named after Wole Soyinka,
the first black man to win the Nobel Prize for
Literature. There is none for Chinua Achebe
whose Things Fall Apart confronted the West and
its Hegelian cohorts that Africans are a people
with culture. What message is the country
sending by ignoring the great people and
rewarding many mediocre ones with street
names? In Medellin, Colombia, the museums have
special sections for their great artists, including
Botero whose paintings of voluminous women
and figures define him. What has Nigeria given
as a form of memorializing to the likes of Ben
Enwonwu and Bruce Onobrakpeya, great artists?
True, Nigeria has provided the inspiration for its
artists but the nation needs to do more to
showcase them as permanent icons in the
national psyche for the living to admire, revere,
and learn from.
Nigeria needs to put back history into the
curriculum of schools. I propose there should be
core history courses that everybody passing
through senior secondary school and the
university must take to graduate. With history in
the school curriculum, there will be no ignorance
of our past as Nigerians. Awareness of history
will destroy the amnesia that seems to afflict so
many Nigerians about their past. And again,
invoking Sankofa, let us be aware of the past as
we live in the present and look to the future.
History will make us a strong nation and, aware
of our duty as responsible citizens, will make us
advance even more in the hard sciences.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s call for
leadership skills to be taught in schools should
begin with the reinstatement of history into the
curricula of secondary schools and tertiary
institutions. History keeps our memory fresh.
• Ojaide is a poet and writer and professor of
Africana Studies at the University of North Carolina
at Charlotte.