One of the calamities that can befall a people is lack of identity; civilization has made Africans to be more westernized even more than the Westerners themselves. Hardly can you see a Nigerian teen that can categorically tell you about the Nigerian culture.
Education is good but not when the civilized knowledge becomes a platform for cultural erosion; our daily activities as a people now depict them and debunk us because you can’t exhibit the knowledge you were never taught.
This has eaten deep in us that we can’t even stand to attest to some geographical realities and claims because we were never told of how they came about; all we were busy learning as history was Mungo Park, Sicilia, Mississippi and every other Western areas but could not even tell the history of the place we sat to learn those Western places.
Why will History be an optional subject in some schools when English and Mathematics as subjects are criteria for passing SSCE and gaining admission into African institutions? To worsen the issue, Nigerian government will never employ you if you don’t pass English as a subject in your papers but will never worry whether you know the Nigerian culture or not.
We’ve missed it! Our children cannot tell their history by themselves but are being examined in schools about other people’s history; what a world! If we must progress as a people, then we must go back to pick our identity and make our culture our sign post.
Everyone of us should be able to categorically tell the landmark of our community before learning the map of the world. We shouldn’t be jack of all trades without relevance as it has added nothing to us but only made us to doubt our strengths and abilities.
Minoring in the major and majoring in the minor will only make us popular but unproductive, limited and ignorant of our worth. At least there should be cultural seminars and conferences once in every year in each districts, so that the culture, landmarks and pride of the people can be relay to them for the sake of the future.
Our Ministers, Commissioners, Special Advisers and every other leaders should come on board to initiate a historian subject in our schools; every pupil should be able to tell the history of how their local government came about; their landmarks, the agreement behind those landmarks and those who fought for them; as this will not only foster peace but will also take away ignorance because an existing public knowledge is in place.
– Ozovehe Moses writes from Kogi state.
