Western Education

WESTERN EDUCATION: THE CHALLENGE OF ENGAGING WITH OUR ROOTS.

By Zacharys Anger Gundu PhD. Department of Archaeology Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

Being Text of a Keynote Address on the Occasion of the Thanksgiving Service and Reception in Honour of Professor Daniel Shirshima of the Benue State University, Makurdi at Gbe – Mbagba on 8th November, 2008.

All Protocols observed. I must express my gratitude to the organizers of this Thanksgiving Service and Reception for extending an invitation to me to give a keynote address at the occasion. 2. My understanding is that we are honouring our very own Professor Daniel Shirshima of the Benue State University and using the occasion to raise funds for the completion of the NKST Church building here. Professor Shirshima is the third Mbagba professor after the Uvah brothers- Innocent of the National Universities Commission, Abuja and his brother Josephat of the University of Pensacola, Florida. Professor Shirshima is in effect, a member of the very best elite intelligentsia in Tivland. At the last count, there were less than 100 professors of Tiv extraction on the face of the earth. For belonging to this select few alone, Professor Shirshima stands out from the crowd and deserves this present honour. 3. Because of this unique achievement, I have decided to engage with the topic of western education and its interface with our roots. I have also chosen to interrogate the significance of education today in our land, state and country because of the many challenges we have continued to face even when more and more of us are parading credentials as educated people. Zacharys Anger Gundu. PhD. © 2009.

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4. Even before we go on, we are assuming that the fact of our roots is not in doubt. It is our opinion that the Tiv people (just as other Nigerian groups) have a very rich heritage comprising values and an indigenous knowledge system that sustained our forefathers and supported their engagement with both the physical and the spiritual. We had a robust medical system comprising the use of herbs and interfacing with the spirit, mind and, body in healing and the management of diseases. Until the abolition of Yamshe by the Colonial government, the Tiv had one of the best marriage and family systems known in the world. Yamshe integrated and cemented the whole group into a cohesive and sustainable family unit in which each was truly his/ her brother’s/ sister’s keeper. The colonial enterprise also set us up against our culture and roots. It cleverly undermined our heritage, delinking it from formal education. Our fathers understood the significance of our roots and heritage and the import of the colonial enterprise, that is why, for long they continued on the note that the white man had spoiled their land – batur vihi tar. 5. Formal education in Tivland goes back to the Colonial period and was a partnership between the Christian Missionaries and the Colonial Administration. While the Missionaries wanted to ‘educate’ local people who Zacharys Anger Gundu. PhD. © 2009.

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could read the Bible and translate their messages, the Colonial Administrators wanted to educate translators, artisans and clerks who could support the system of exploitation and control they had established. Initially it was difficult for our fathers to see any future in western education. The first to risk sending their children and wards to the white man’s school, sent the ‘useless’ ones who were not in line to inherit their wealth and possibly their ‘amboravungu’. Whatever, western education caught up quickly and by 1966- six years after independence, Primary School enrollment in Tivland stood at 34, 186. This was the highest figure in Northern Nigeria except for Kano and Ilorin who had 37,023 and 51,881 respectively. It is clear that we have not sustained this apparent head start and have been badly bruised in the Nigerian project. 6. Before returning to how badly we have been bruised in the Nigerian project (in spite of our ‘education’ and numbers) we must pay tribute to the first ‘educated’ people in Tivland. In this group are Akiga Sai, who committed our History and Culture into writing in that great book called Akiga’s Story. There are also those great and committed elders who teamed up with the white man to translate and give us the Tiv Bible. Not many know that this translation is the single most important factor that has kept the Zacharys Anger Gundu. PhD. © 2009.

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Tiv language from dying today. This group also comprises dedicated artisans who built the first ‘modern’ houses in Tivland which are still standing without cracks. While this group did creditably well, the group that ventured into the quest for leadership did not do so well. We remember that JS Tarka of blessed memory was foisted on the UMBC after its members rejected Achirga Abuul whom they felt was not ‘educated’. JS Tarka’s leadership of the UMBC was later to cost Tivland a lot of blood and property expressed in the Nande Nande and Atem Tyo crises of the early sixties. Though our experience in the second republic under the leadership of Aper Aku (one of the first Tiv people to graduate from the University) was different, we have continued to slide under successive leaderships of our educated sons and daughters raising the question as to the poverty of our education and whether our education is not a curse to our society. In a recent publication, Onov Tyuulugh has a detailed documentary as to how the Nigerian Project has short changed the Tiv people since Colonial times. Just prior to Independence in 1960, the Tiv Native Authority was at par with those of Sokoto, Bornu and Kano. While each of these three is a multiplicity of states today, the Tiv are sharing and grumbling a state with others. A close

Zacharys Anger Gundu. PhD. © 2009.

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look at the recruitment pattern in Federal and state agencies also show an unacceptable level of marginalization. 7. Recent events show that the political leadership is totally oblivious of this challenge and more concerned with election rigging and corruption in the public space. In the last elections, university teachers (and their colleagues at the lower levels) and senior civil servants competed with each other to rig the ballot and make sure the votes of their parents did not count in the elections. The impunity of government in our land and the lack of accountability is directly the handiwork of those of us who stand to be counted amongst the educated. The manipulation of traditional institutions and their polarization for political ends is the handiwork of our educated politicians. We probably need to know that society is very cynical of our education. Only the other day, a bus in Gboko carried an interesting message: ‘Sorry for Degree’. Those who attempt to enter the foray of local politics have often been stopped by those insisting that their education is irrelevant. This is most unfortunate more so when some of those cynical of education turn around to forge papers to assume qualifications they do not have and canvass for honorary degrees, sometimes buying them for effect.

Zacharys Anger Gundu. PhD. © 2009.

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8. We argue that however disappointing our education maybe, the idea of education is relevant. It is more relevant than natural resources including oil and gold. The world is driven and propelled today by IDEAS. Japan has clearly demonstrated this and other countries like the US are leading the world not on the strength of their natural resources but on their ability and resourcefulness in pooling ideas and deploying them for their advancement. The world is no longer fixated on numbers and land. If there is a fixation, its on the challenge of IDEAS and how these can be organized and deployed for effect. 9. To be relevant, our education must connect with our indigenous values and knowledge systems so that the educated man and woman in Tivland will cease to be the problem, will cease to provide only for self, will cease to be a common criminal in government, will cease to undermine the ballot and begin to be an active part of resolving our challenges and building in furtherance of the common good. Everywhere in the world, the seeds of change are sown by educated people who distinguish themselves by carefully examining the challenges of their societies and engaging with their people for decisive change. It is quite clear from the way we have continued to slide that we educated people in Tivland are failing our society. We are not critically Zacharys Anger Gundu. PhD. © 2009.

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engaging the challenges of the time, we are also not properly engaging our people. 10. Difficult as this challenge may be, it is still possible and something we cannot run away from. It is our opinion that to be relevant, we must first clarify aspects of our heritage , values and indigenous knowledge system that can be integrated into our education to serve the needs of our time. For we must recognize that not everything from our past is useless, not everything about our world view, religion and spirituality is useless. Many of the local foods we eat are superior in nutritional value than foods eaten in other parts of the world. Our medical practice around bone setting for example, is still far superior to what is known in western medicine. Not everything about our definition of the common good is useless. Unless we must begin to consciously isolate and build on the useful , we will continue to slide and produce ‘educated’ people who will continue to fail us, choosing as it were, to cheat, exploit and undermine the common good. 11. By choosing to host Professor Shirshima, the members of this Church and Mbagba are in effect providing a window of opportunity to engage with educated people. Those of us who claim to be educated must take this window seriously. Other sections of Tivland must also take after this Zacharys Anger Gundu. PhD. © 2009.

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example so that there will be a structured engagement to explore ways to make our education truly serve our people in such ways that the common good will be placed over and above our individual interests. The reason for our living and the logic for our actions must be to serve the common good. so We must bind together and muster the courage and clarity required to face the challenges ahead that can only be resolved by the power of ideas. Thanks you and God Bless.

Zacharys Anger Gundu. PhD. © 2009.

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