The desire and aspiration of the founding fathers of Nigeria was to bring into existence a vibrant and stable nation where an all-round development would be recorded shortly after the attainment of independence. This vision greatly influenced the nationalist leaders who fought for the country’s liberty from the shackles of the British colonialists. It is rather unfortunate that almost sixty years after Independence, Nigeria is yet to be recognized on the global economic, industrial, educational and strategic cum security arenas. This is due mostly to bad leadership and compromising followership as those who have been directing the nation’s affairs are self-centred and rapacious. There is no doubt that the relegation of the study and application of Humanities Particularly History, Indigenous Religions (IR), Christianity and Islam is responsible for this sad development. As a result, the vast majority of Nigerian leaders and followers lack sense of history and also soil their hands in corruption and other vices that were frowned at in the pre-colonial African / Nigerian societies when the traditional gods occupied the centre-stage of virtually every stratum of African life, Christian and Islamic teachings. Therefore, the focus of this paper is to address how both History and Religions can be used in instilling sanity in our society without which the nation will continue to be at the back seat of development in the contemporary global system.
Nigeria, History, Religions, Political class, Bureaucrats
