National Assembly Rejects Bill To Make History Compulsory In Schools (See Details)

The National Assembly has thrown
out a bill wishing to make history a
compulsory subject in primary and
secondary schools across the nation.
Premium Times reports that the
House of Representatives said that
there was no need for a legislation to
make history a compulsory subject
and the proposal was not properly
worded and therefore stood down the
bill.
The bill, titled “A Bill for an Act to
Make History a Core School Subject in
Nigeria’s Primary and Secondary
Schools and for other Related
Matters,” was proposed by Ayodeji
Oladimeji, an APC member from Oyo
State.
Oladimeji argued that the bill became
necessary because of widespread
ignorance of Nigerian history and
other historical events among young
Nigerians. Oladimeji said enacting the
adoption of history into law should
make it stringent for education
administrators to expunge from the
curriculum.
“I have a secretary who did not even
know anything about former Head of
State, Murtala Muhammed.
Colleagues, we need to do something
about this situation because history is
highly essential for nation building,”
Oladimeji said.
Other Reps members accepted the
importance of Oladimeji’s argument
and the bill but turned it down on the
grounds that it contained a word
‘core’ which was ‘somehow’.
“I know it’s important for a people to
know their history, but the word
‘core’ in the title of the bill is
somehow,” Zakari Mohammed said
and was backed by other lawmakers.
Speaker Yakubu Dogara overruled
Oladimeji’s prayers and urged him to
go and rework the bill.
Meanwhile, Abdulmumin Jibrin, the
suspended member of the House of
Representatives, has gone on exile.
The lawmaker has fled to London last
week to receive an award and take his
anti-graft campaign to the global
community.