A former university don, Professor Emeka Aniagolu, Tuesday stated that the scrapping of history as a subject in Nigerian schools was a setback which denied the younger generation the privilege to know certain historical facts with a view to avoiding issues inimical to the good of the country.
He stated this at the pre-launch press conference of his book: ‘A Tale of Ikenga,’ which he said, would hold Thursday in Abuja.
The professor in the Black World Studies of Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, remarked that the removal of history studies would lead to selective amnesia.
He said: “The scrapping of history is a foolish policy on the part of the Nigerian government and whoever was behind it. There is no society anywhere in the world that has done away with its history because bad things happened in the past.
“You teach history because you want to remember what went wrong so that you do not repeat the mistake. You do not consciously decide to induce a form of amnesia in the society which creates the context of possibility of repeating itself to remember what happened.
“Everybody must be taught the history of this country and history should and must be rehabilitated into the educational system. Or we will have people suffering from amnesia.”
He said the ‘Tale of Ikenga’ traces the historiography of the Igbo people and correct some misconceptions, adding that it would serve as a memory jogger to the older folks.
The former President-General Ohanaeze Ndigbo, John Nwodo, a businessman and philanthropist, Arthur Eze, among others are being expected at the event Thursday.