By Yusuf Adua

Vice President of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo had on Monday pointed out that the future of Nigeria depended largely on full and accurate knowledge of the nation’s history.

Osinbajo, according to a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, made this known at the inauguration of the Nigeria History Fund by the James Adekunle Ojelabi Foundation.

The fund was put together to support history students in Nigeria with a scholarship scheme.

According to the VP, the reintroduction of history into the curriculum of primary and secondary schools across the country was not only borne out of the need to restore the subject in schools but also in recognition of its immense contribution to the socio-political, economic, and cultural development of Nigeria.

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He said: “When the Federal Government decided to reintroduce history into the curriculum across primary and secondary schools last year, it was a decision borne out of the recognition that first our children must know where they are coming from and have an understanding of the life that preceded them.

“History is far too essential for us to de-prioritise. It encourages us as individuals to not restrict ourselves to thinking in the short-term but to remember that we too are living histories”, he stressed.

He maintained that no one can sure-footedly chart a course forward without understanding where he or she is coming from. He said ” Vision is important but so too is memory. Nation-building requires us to develop both faculties of imagination and remembrance. Indeed, this stewardship of national memory is a cardinal civic obligation”.

To have a Nigeria of which its future will work for young and old regardless of religion or ethnicity, according to him, depends on full and accurate knowledge of our histories.