Some university dons have told stakeholders in the education sector and the Federal Government to encourage the study of history in the universities to promote understanding of national history and culture.
They told newsmen in separate interviews on Sunday in Lagos that the number of students applying to study history was decreasing in most Nigerian universities.
Dr Sheidu Sule, a Lecturer in the Department of Educational Administration, University of Lagos, said that a lack of manpower in the Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences had affected the course.
Sule said that there was need for all hands to be on deck to make the course enticing by creating job opportunities for history graduates.
“The number of students applying to study history in our universities is low because of lack of awareness, interest, job opportunity and generational change.
“If a person or a nation lacks history, it will be like a dying man. Nobody can live without the knowledge of history and everybody needs it.
“All hands she said must be on deck to encourage our youths to study history because a. man without history is moving like a blind man without guidance.
“Students, upon completion of their courses have no designated end point, no lucrative job and cannot specify their end point,” he said.
Sule also said that lack of interest in studying history was a generational challenge that must be addressed fast.
He added that most youths yearned for quick money, adding that they did not want a degree like in history that would make them work so hard before getting rich.
Prof. Adewale Elegbeleye, Head, Department of Psychology at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, said that the study of history would always remain evergreen and should not be allowed to perish.
Elegbeleye said that lack of interest to study history was because youths wanted to become more business-inclined.
He said that the present policy on entrepreneurial and vocational training was also discouraging youths from studying history.
“It is a general perception that history is not lucrative; but it is evergreen and nobody, no organisation or country can do without history.
“The Federal Government is flagging off a campaign emphasising that people should be entrepreneurial-inclined and this is affecting other professions like history.
“Many institutions have changed the Department of History to Department of History and International Relations, just to make it enterprising,“ he said.
Elegbeleye advised that people should not undermine the influence of history as a subject, required by all organisations to survive.
