Nigeria’s poor economic growth performance coupled with its ugly consequences is reversible in the face of appropriate strategies and willpower of the political leadership to do some critical re-engineering. Most of the tensions in the country as elsewhere in West Africa are traceable to the colonial past and the current globalization processes with their contradictory, reactionary tendencies and dynamics. Nigerian educational system – the engine complex of any serious society is not yet free from the shackles of colonialism and neo-colonialism. This underscores the reason why the Nigerian leadership has failed woefully to turn the humongous natural-resource endowment of this geo-polity into an enormous development asset for the betterment of the citizens.

There is an urgent need for a revolution by education.

Indeed, Nigerians do not need to begin to wallow in self-pity. The only healthy option is to take the bull by the horns through the lenses of messianic leadership imbued with uncommon patriotic fervour. Our current curricula need a radical overhaul because they do not provide sustainable growth opportunities for the people. They lack originality and by extension, creativity. The new curricula being proposed here have to be embedded in our histories and cultures or indigenous epistemologies including knowledge systems. They should [if rigorously packaged and implemented] be able to unlock the potential of present-day Nigerians. Culture-loaded education liberates a group of people from the bondage of ignorance, poverty, and disease. Nigeria needs to create its own respectable mini-universe within the broad trans-oceanic landscape.

Scholars in such disciplines as Archaeology, Anthropology, Sociology, History, Philosophy, Geography, Botany, Graphic Art, Architecture, Engineering and Curriculum Development have to begin to network in order to craft a truly decolonized educational system for Nigeria. The current curricula are merely producing graduates that are thoroughly detached from their local environment and social history. Consequently, they lack self-confidence, the key to creativity and innovations. Curricular change of this nature entails new courses, programmes and books for Nigerian students across the board. However, we would still be tapping knowledge from other parts of the world in a critical manner. The scientific, technical, artistic, and symbolic underpinnings of the retrieved archaeological and/or ethnographic artifacts have to form the bedrock of the above efforts. Discoveries from Taruga, Igbo-Ukwu, and Ile-Ife in the northern, eastern and western regions respectively, should be elaborately packaged as scientific and technical products. They are not mere art objects. We have to also learn from the failings of our forebears. This historico-cultural consciousness rooted in internal dynamics has to begin from the primary school level.

Science and technology are not the exclusive preserve of Europeans, North Americans, Japanese and Chinese. But unfortunately, the Nigerian educational system, due to its ontological deficiencies turns the citizens into uncritical consumers of foreign goods and ideas as low levels of productivity constitute the defining characteristic of our national culture. Nigerians are generally disdainful of their cultures and histories as they pitiably swallow hook, line and sinker every foreign thing even if it was originally taken away from Africa. Despite the erudition of many local Nigerian engineers, such modern artifacts as bicycles, cars and choppers cannot be built. Nigeria is an uncritical follower-country where auto-determined development still seems light years away.

Currently, efforts are being made by our smarter cousins from the developed climes and cultures to study witchcraft or magic powers in Zambia. Huge amounts of US dollars are being expended on this research, while Africans are fast asleep. Knowledge derived from this project would later be translated into modern gadgets or technologies to improve the human condition. There is no doubt that Nigerians would be rushing to acquire such gadgets as their latest status symbol. We are shameless consumers of what outsiders are producing contrary to what happened in prehistoric times. It is almost a taboo among many Western- educated Nigerians to mention, let alone study Ifa, a profound divination system among the Yoruba. Ifa is the sacred box that houses human actions and activities within the confines of material and extra-material environments down the ages. Though unscripted, Ifa is supposed to be our blueprint for home-grown economic and technical developments as well as robustness of life in general. Human experiences in the areas of Mathematics, Human Evolution, Mysticism, History, Geography, Agronomy and Politics among others are eminently locked up in the Ifa corpuses. A country or system can only jettison salient aspects of its indigenous cultural and natural heritage at its own peril.

The Ministry of Education needs to appreciate the fact that curricular change is too sensitive to be politicized or trivialized. Nigeria must get cracking. This is a collective responsibility that should involve all the related bodies like the National Commission for Museums and Monuments and National Centre for Arts and Culture. Members of the task force for this assignment must be selected on the basis of competence and integrity without necessarily glossing over federal character principles. Nepotism or cronyism has recently been robbing Nigeria of its economic and socio-political progress. Not much can be achieved when a leader is surrounded by mediocrities. Curricular reform in Nigeria is an exercise anchored to unalloyed patriotism and service to humanity generally

Although a few administrations in the past made some attempts to put Nigeria on the path to economic and socio-political stability, not much success was made in the long run. This was largely because the problems and challenges facing the country were/are symptoms of colonial educational system-an anathema to sustainable development in several senses. Thus, for example, the Second National Development Plan of 1970 emphasised five objectives like united, strong, and self-reliant nation; a great and dynamic economy; a just and egalitarian society; a land full of opportunities for all citizens and finally, a free and democratic society. The overall goal of the plan was the improvement of the living standards of the people. The failure of this national plan including other similar efforts later is basically traceable to the inability of the leaders to truly domesticate the educational curricula at all levels. Colonial or neo-colonial form of education encumbers the capacity of Nigerians to deeply appreciate and appropriate their destinies as well as the directions to follow in order to become a peaceful and economically prosperous country. Nigeria, given its current educational system is like a house with weak foundations. Not unexpectedly, the country is on the losing side of the competitive world of modern education and development as marginalization of its voices coupled with scripted and unscripted agendas continues unabated. Consequently, the Nigerian spirit remains imprisoned by the globalizing and hegemonic Western oligarchy and its morally bankrupt supporters from within. The country has to through the lenses of culture-loaded curricula, return to its roots defined by glories in science and technology.

• Prof Ogundele is of the Dept. of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan.