By Ayodele Fagbohun

“If you  want  to suffer a nation, take it  away from her history,” says Dr. (Mrs) Bolajoko  Sally, one-time  President, National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, (NAPPS).

The latest proposal alongside the momentum of the  President Ahmed Bola Tinubu-led  Federal Government to re-introduce the study of History as  a compulsory subject  in the curriculum of the primary and post primary institutions  is not only a welcome and positive development but in no small measure to right the wrongs and the monumental  rank  injustices done over the  years  to our national  psyche by the unpopular, unilateral  and retrogressive  removal  of history from the syllabus.

The harsh  decision was taken by the military  interlopers  who deliberately foisted unitarian and illegitimate  rule on the people without  seeking their rights  to govern them. This subtle, callous, intemperate and barbaric  policy to wipe out history as a branch of learning that  fosters spirit of enquiries in contemporary society, was to  suffer a nation, denigrate  and stultify her growth, progress  and made  perpetually subservient  under the  rule of the thumb fashioned by military autocracy.

The declarative assertion of the Federal Ministry of  Education making  the study of History a compulsory  living  subject to be re-introduced into the  school curricula  should be  applauded and the nation must be commended for  assuming her democratic rights, once again, in the comity of modern nations.

Government pronouncements and directives  should be  robustly  supported, firmed up and bankrolled by equipping  the schools and colleges with relevant textbooks and listing the recruitment  of History teachers a top priority come  next  academic session, 2025/26. The teaching  of History and other equally  important and ancillary  subjects like Religious Studies (RS), which are pivotal and  strategic to other levels of education and by extension to national development, should be given fillip in the scheme of things.

Besides, the  curriculum in the secondary schools should be  developed to accommodate the widest scope of learning  and scholarship, be it moral and religious, to  enable and  guide students in the choice of their courses when seeking  admission into various tertiary institutions.

In this  connection, the government must  prioritize  the  teaching of religious education. For instance, Christian  Religious  Knowledge (CRK), Islamic  Studies (IS) and African Traditional Religion (ATR)  should be given the impetus and  a pride of place in the school curriculum to dis-abuse the  minds of the gullible and to  explode  the myth surrounding  the wicked  lie that  All Progressive Congress (APC) Federal  led administration is heading  towards  Islamisation  and  “Fulanisation”  of the  country.

It must  be reiterated that, the  agents and sponsors  of  religious bigotry and  destabilisation are the enemies of  Nigeria;  pack of  ignoramuses bereft of our contemporary history. This uncouth and  unconscionable group  regardless of age and status, should go back to school  and avail themselves the opportunity of adult/evening education to learn the rudiments of Nigerian history. Lest  they  quail at the might of their strength as the country shall remain inviolable and indivisible  secular state.

The ministry in a clever manner, to perpetuate illegal regime discountenanced the study of History in our secondary schools in favour of social studies to brainwash the  students and the people alike, and to put the whole nation in the  dark to know  and comprehend the evils  and enmity of coups detat alongside its violent  upheavals,  which the students of History impact.

Without the requisite personnel, by way of enough trained  teachers to man  all the classrooms, all spirited  efforts  of  government  and  stakeholders to rejig  education to its top form  will be “sound and fury,” signifying  nothing.

Some  stakeholders posit that the importance of history as foundation of life and knowledge to national identity, civil responsibility, patriotism, nation building  and overall human development can  neither be over-emhasised nor  quantified by any stretch of imagination.

History is taught in schools for the  purpose  of instilling civic  virtue, patriotism and discipline.

Ever since, Nigeria  has been groping  in the  dark, lost her  bearings, and  became rudderless, walking on her head until sanity prevails  with  the debut of civilian rule, which  now restores  normalcy to  the body politick.

Little  wonder, Dr (Mrs) Bolajoko Sally of NAPPS submitted as  quoted in the preface to  this essay that, if  you want to deny or  deprive a nation, you may go for her jugular by taking away her history.

You  trample or rather distort people’s history to their  peril!

Mr. Abdul Wahid  Obalokun of the League of Muslim  School Proprietors (LEAMP) said, “Removing history is like asking  you to forget your root  and yet, you  want  to forge ahead and we don’t  know  how possible  is such without   first  looking  at the  past, so as to  compare it with the  present and then plan for the  future.”

And that is why Nigerian children of now-a-days  don’t know our heroes and heroines; and where  we  are coming  from, let alone comparing it with the  present  or where  we are going as a nation.

History has focused on the actions of government, their leaders and conflicts amongst them. In other words, all these  could be well researched and clinically  documented in political and diplomatic history at  tertiary level. In absolute and  practical terms, history  always affords any nation  or given society an inclination to know with precision and exactitude the type of  leadership and government ideal suitable for  a particular  phase or epoch.

Capacity to manage and navigate; to reconstruct a  better future and  civilisation,  based on the past and  present  challenges belong forever to the intrinsic value and matter of great import of history as a field of knowledge.

History as the main   root; an integral  part of social  science, deal with human experience in Political Science, sociology, Anthropology  and Economics. History is also  a social science that attempts to establish objective  truth  about man and  society.

Historical study, by the  same token, starts from curiosity or awareness that impinges on scientific pursuit obviously to provide a greater range of data.

It  however needs  to be re-emphasised that a historical narrative is a form of literature for intellectual pursuits.

To cap it all, it is asserted that the historian must employ his faculties of criticism and objective  judgment  in order to drive  and arrive  at the “nearest approximation” to the truth  about the  past. Only strict  adherence  to the truth and  objectivity,  which are the hallmarks of the historian,  shall  frast –track the path to nation building, patriotism and rectitude.

The study of history  must be amplified to enable the  pupils  and students in   primary and post primary   institutions have a wider horizon  about contemporary and global  issues. This will be a  deliberate policy  to rekindle  the  flames of patriotism and nationalism whittled down via the rude  military  incursion into  politics.

Hear  what  Dr. Mike Ene, erstwhile Secretary General, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT),  says on the belated re-introduction of History as a  compulsory subject. “The law of  morality says: if you  don’t  know where  you are coming from, it will be  difficult  to know where exactly you are going and that is the  situation about History in any society.”