The Director, Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies (CPSS), University of Ilorin, Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ibrahim Jawondo, has urged the Federal Government to rejig the nation’s academic curricula and make the study of History in schools compulsory for every student.
Prof. Jawondo stated this penultimate Saturday (January 18, 2025) while speaking on a radio programme monitored by UNILORIN Bulletin.
The don, who is a former Director, Centre for Ilorin Studies (CILS), said that regardless of area of specialisation in academic pursuits, the study of History, as a subject, must be made compulsory to avoid distortion.
Prof. Jawondo pointed out that History should be an independent subject on the timetable for students.
He said, “I am begging government that they should not pair History with any other course on the timetable. Let everybody, whether you are doing Science, Commerce, Engineering, whatever you are doing, History is very important. So, I think they should make it compulsory so that everybody will learn it.”
The renowned academic, who is a former Head of the Department of History and International Studies at the University, alleged that those who were responsible for the removal of History from the academic curricula were enemies of the country.
He added that the anti-History study elements did so to discourage people from knowing about the history and formation of the country and cover up their past.
He said, “You are discouraging people from knowing who you are, knowing what your community is all about, how you came about, how Nigeria is made up, how Africa is made up, what is the relationship between Africa and other continents. For those who did it, I think they meant to destroy this country. Only God saved us.
Going further, he said,”The reason is because the governance in Nigeria shifted significantly from those that you can say are ‘born to rule’ to those who became charismatic due to Western education or through another means and they found themselves in governance, and so they want to clear that area of their history that looks to be a little bit dirty, and they feel that the only way is to stop people from studying History so that people will not know their past”.
