A Nigerian lecturer based in the United States (US), Prof Emeka Aniagolu has said the removal of History from the secondary school curriculum would cause the agitation of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) for a long time.
The don, who taught African history at Ohio Wesleyan University and a private university in Columbus, raised concerns that failure to allow the younger generation to learn about their ancestry and the reconstruction of past events could induce a form of amnesia in society.
Aniagolu voiced his concern in Abuja at the pre-launch of his new book, “A Tale of Ikenga,” a historiography of the Igbo people written to correct some misconceptions.
He stated that it is a known fact that most youngsters being recruited as freedom fighters of the proscribed group, Indigenous People of Biafra, were neither born during the Nigerian Civil War nor familiar with its account.
He said, “The scrapping of history was a very foolish move on the part of the Nigerian government. There is no society anywhere in the world that has done away with teaching history because some bad things happened in the past. That is simply absurd. You teach history because you want to remember what went wrong so that you don’t repeat those mistakes.
“You don’t consciously decide to induce a form of amnesia to the society, which creates the context or the possibility for repeating the same thing when people don’t remember what happened.
“Let me give another instance. Some of these youngsters involved in IPOB (activities) were not born during the Civil War. They have no idea what War was like. Not even an inkling. If they were taught judiciously in school or routinely about the Civil War, they will know that talking about war or the things that could lead to it is a very serious business.”
The Federal Government had removed history from primary and secondary schools’ curriculums. But Aniagolu believed denying young Nigerians access to vital historical knowledge for 13 years could haunt the nation.
Continuing, the don said he was embarrassed to discover at a recent religious function that even his young aide neither recognised nor heard of former Military Head of State, Gen Yakubu Gowon while exchanging pleasantries with him.
“Yesterday, I was at a function, and a former Head of State in this country, Gen Yakubu Gowon, came in. I was with my assistant, who is a young lady in her twenties. So I introduced her to him (Gowon) as Nigeria’s former head of state. But the poor girl still has no idea and mistook him for one of those politicians we have around.
“the point I am making is that it is impossible to go to the US and ask a high school student if he knows George Washington, whose era was even further back in history, and he will tell you ‘Oh, I think he is an American politician.’ No, that is because they teach them history and a series of other courses every day to replenish their sense of being an American,” he stated.
The 9th President-General Ohanaeze Ndigbo, John Nwodo; a businessman and philanthropist, Arthur Eze, among others are billed to grace the event, on Thursday