This disclosure was made during the inaugural meeting of the Network of Nigerian Historians (NNH), at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CEPACS), University of Ibadan. The new body, according to its convener, Prof. Ayodeji Olukoju of the Department of History, University of Lagos, is to revamp the practice of historical research, scholarship and teaching, which participants observed, had gradually ebbed in the last few decades.
In an inaugural presentation, the Head of History Department, University of Lagos, Prof. Rufus Taiwo Akinyele, argued that the underdevelopment of Nigeria was due mainly to the crisis of governance and poor leadership in particular. In the paper entitled: Administrative History and the Crisis of Governance in Nigeria, the university don noted that the country had been outpaced by South east Asian countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia with which it was at the same level of development at independence.
He said Nigeria had become a country of unrealised promises and unfulfilled hopes, irrespective of several “transition programmes” and “corrective regimes,” adding that good policies were frustrated by the greed and incompetence of politicians, administrators and lack of infrastucture. erratic power supply. He added that this had resulted in folding up many of industries, saying ‘Nigerian factor’ affected social and political institutions as well as public morality.
Akinyede traced these problems to the failure to learn from history and also indicted history teachers for failing to adjust their syllabus and orientation to contemporary needs. He concluded that if Nigeria was not making progress as it should, Nigerian historians should take part of the blame. This, according to him, was because they were suitably placed to study those events that were most likely to influence public policies and thus guide the decisions of government.
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