Of a Professor of Law and failure of history

A good number of us critiqued that statement which was certainly borne out of misinformation and a true reflection of the character of people in leadership position.At a time when the nation is faced with numerous social crises, its president said he didn’t need sociologists, at a time when the government itself was facing uphill […]

A good number of us critiqued that statement which was certainly borne out of misinformation and a true reflection of the character of people in leadership position.
At a time when the nation is faced with numerous social crises, its president said he didn’t need sociologists, at a time when the government itself was facing uphill task and challenges of visibility from the Nigerian media, the government said they didn’t need graduates of mass communication.
That may be why today in our secondary schools, history is hardly taught as subject so is geography and other critical sciences of the society. Little wonder it is therefore when we produce engineers and medical doctors, architects and in other disciplines like law and even political science who are completely ignorant of their environment. An engineer who is ignorant of the history of his environment cannot be functional. Similarly is the case with lawyer, political scientist and medical doctors who are ignorant of history.
When I see Nigeria’s universities of science and technology running away from history and other related sciences, I laugh because I know that science and technology without history will remain irrelevant especially to the people and societies concerned. 
History is therefore central to our being and ignorance of it makes a people further backward. When I read Mohammed Haruna on Wednesday, what readily came to my mind was that he pulled the rug off my feat. I have soon after reading through Professor Nwabueze’s piece on what he called Lord Luggard’s Gerrymandering’, I thought the aged professor of law needed to be responded to in view of the fact that as an authority in jurisprudence, he mustn’t at the tail end of his life deceive people based on his clear ignorance of contemporary and even pre-colonial Nigerian history.
I am happy that Mallam Mohammed Haruna is taking the professor on the specific issues  he raised and tried to falsely justify in that paper which unfortunately constitute a major syllabus of error and a sad commentary in the reputation and integrity of the otherwise accomplished professor of law.
As a Nigerian of Igbo extraction, professor Nwabueze is not insulated from that hate which runs across the spines of several Nigerians against the other Nigerians. I therefore find no difficulty in placing his emotions against a relatively unified entity called Northern Nigeria. From the tune in Professor’s outburst, he was short of calling on the president to decree that henceforth, the term Northern Nigeria must not be said by anybody.
The level of hate, fear and disenchantment was not better captured than when the law professor made repetitive references to Dr Paul Unongo, an elder statesman and no doubt a thorough bred Nigerian whom Professor Nwabueze saw as not belonging to the so called Hausa-Fulani oligarchy, not a Muslim and not from those states Nwabueze referred to as ‘True North’ and yet as recently as August 2013 granting an interview in his capacity as a Northern elder.
If people from the other parts of Nigeria thought that despite the obviously self-orchestrated crises of religion and tribe facing Northern Nigeria, the region is doomed, they are making a big mistake. I do not yet know of any section of the North that does not see itself as the North. In fact on matters relating or affecting the region, those who Professor Nwabueze sees as Middle-Belters or non ‘True Northerners’ are always at the fore front of defending the region, and I do not see the end of this insight.
That is perhaps the puzzle in the Paul Unongo’s example which people like the professor of law are failing to realize. One thing that is clear after reading through that work which I see as an epilogue, is that as distinguished as the professor may be in law, he suffers from acute shortage of the knowledge of history if he does not know that before the advent of British colonial domination and Lord Luggard’s ‘gerrymandering’ communities, several of them that make up what he hates to be called the Northern region were associating very closely in various areas ranging from administration to commerce and trade.
More than a hundred years before the advent colonial rule, Sokoto jihad had reached as far as Ilorin to the south west. Speaking about the relationship between Kogi State and what he calls the True North, it is better that Professor Nwabueze has claimed that there was no relationship between his divisions forgetting that in the same paper he argued that even in his ‘True North’ there are a large population of Christians apart from the huge population of Muslims in both Igala, Ibira and even Okun lands.
As for Benue, the Professor was clearly worried about the deep involvement of especially the Tiv leaders on matters relating to Northern region. For the benefit of those who are doubting, the peoples of these areas have always stood firm in the defense of whatever is seen as interest of the North. It is very clear in several fronts and I think that is what those who hate the term Northern Region are pained to hear.
I am optimistic that both Professor Nwabueze and all those who think like him will depart this world with the anger that the term Northern region persists and even after their children because despite the difficulties, people of any federal constituencies define their characters in common destinies and there is nothing anybody can do about it.
I am worried that people who should know are claiming ignorance and acting pedestrian. This is simply a product of hate and unwillingness to live in the concept and context of unity in diversity which to a large extent is the secret that has kept federal structures flourishing in other claims while we continue to wobble.
There can be any type of crisis in the Northern region which comprises of 19 states and the FCT but one thing that is certain is that at the end of the day, every one knows where he comes from. We may build alliances and disagree with one another on matters that may be real or mundane, the fact remains that there are serious fallacies in the historical sojourn which Professor Nwabueze wants Nigerians to take.
A serious tragedy the nation’s educational system is facing is that there seems not to be any system in place that ensures Professors are reproducing once they attain that rank. Most of them become lazy, apathetic to research and continue to live in ignorance and the rule in learning is that without refreshing, the tendency to unlearn is faster.
Professors must do research, mustn’t live in the euphoria of name and tittle while dumping ignorance on the society and in my view such a paper that was more historical than legal authored by Professor Nwabueze only exposed the weaknesses of some of these egg-heads and shows the danger that we all live in.