The debate about the relevance of History and other courses in social sciences and humanities is not new. But Buhari's address to the rescued Kankara Boys where he said that students should read science related courses and ignore others in humanities like History and English, has elicited a lot of reactions from professionals in those disciplines and scholars in the natural sciences who thought that the President didn't get his thoughts right.
Recently, for cultural reason, I developed interest in the history of modern information and communication technology in Nigeria. My friend teaching in a Computer Science Dept. and I began talking, reading and even writing about it. In the course of our research, I observed that the influence of modern ICT on our culture was immense.
This led me to learn that, ICT and its development has cultural content embedded in it, depending on the culture that first develops it. Whichever culture creates a technology, you find its values, environment, and idea of development(of that particular area) being incorporated. Look at how Africans invented their technology, like hoe, for example. They did it having in mind Africa's idea of cultivation, of the type of soil they have, and available raw materials. So, if another culture is to use it even after modifying it, is to see that culture relatively resembling African culture in some ways, at least in cultivation. This means that the technological development was first imagined, before it was developed.
The same thing applies to modern technology. You look at Facebook and other social media platforms created from the West, and despite development of global culture, you can see western liberal ideas of community formation, of freedom of thought, of materialism, among other western isms, incorporated. This is so because of where they were created, and the problem they intend to solve.
Therefore, when Hausa people are to use any of the platforms to achieve an end for example, they will be subconsciously adapting to some of the above mentioned ideas which are "inherently" western. That's why a young man on the platform can insult an elderly person without feeling any remorse, but can't dare do same in real life. Technology is created for a particular purpose, and it will have to achieve that end. If the end is to better the life of the human race, history and other courses will forever remain relevant because development is first imagined, as shown above, and when actualized, it affects humanity.
Fast forward, while we hail the material developments, on the other hand, clamour for climate discipline, data privacy, proliferation of arms in the hands of non-state actors is also high, and the corporate organisations responsible for those anomalies spend huge amounts of money to contain the mess they created. Within this range, the relevance of SS and arts becomes more apparent.
When you review the development of modern technology in our region, you will see it making us behave half way western without realising it in the first place. Review the gaye culture in the North. Or football culture. Or hip-hop culture. Or improvising of india-hausa soyayya variant. All these have social implications and they are the same implications that even our religious scholars complain about regularly. The reason why we see that, is because the technologies have cultural contents or serve as agency for cultural transmission. If you want to understand the problem in the changing behaviour of the people as a result of using the technology, you don't first and foremost create another technology. Your duty now is to understand the problem and then imagine a solution. This is what social sciences and humanities do, social engineering.
Coming back to the main point. The problems that limit Nigeria's progress and which if tackled, we all agree, can get the country to begin marching towards the promised land, are corruption, broken economy, high rate of voilent crimes, leadership failure, depreciating national values, among others. These problems are not only social in outlook, but have deep roots in history and sociology. To fix them therefore, we need to acquire, understand, and apply knowledges in humanities and social sciences in the first place. I will, at this point, request you to study the concept of social capital and its place in human (economic) progress. Francis Fukuyama has done an excellent job about that. That's if we think social sciences have little to do with human material progress. Rather, they provide the basis.
Come to think of it, if you train these students only to get high paying jobs, or use the skills acquired to invent a fighter jet which security forces can use to kill all the bandits and Boko Haram insurgents for peace to reign in Nigeria, Nigeria will continue to face the problems of unemployment, poverty, violent crimes, hunger, out of school children etc. Because the problems are deeply social and have their own historical contexts, which must be understood.
However, the students may need to study the basics in humanities and SS for their invention to have human face since they are meant for human use. This goes to mean that if they study those courses without basic knowledge in humanities and SS, there will be problem. This is the philosophy behind the introduction of General Study courses such as History and Philosophy of Science, Nigerian Peoples and Culture, English and Communication Skills etc, in tertiary institutions for all students regardless of their course of study.
Besides, we all agree that a graduate doesn't only need to acquire knowledge of science and technology to succeed in the job market or even in entrepreneurship. She/he also needs communication skill, cultural intelligence, social intelligence, a grasp on human behaviour, the nature, patterns and structure of the market, and then study people's reactions to development. This is why you would see world telecom giants' CEOs engaged in reading books on these subjects and consistently engaging scholars in the said fields -- creating platforms where such ideas are discussed. Because they know that, for them to keep floating at the top in the market and maintain world dominance, they need to study those things you think are irrelevant. If you think human agency will no longer be relevant because of rise in Artificial Intelligence and biotech, think again. The issue is, except human race cease to exist on earth, history, languages and others will continue to be relevant.
If an economy is broken as is Nigeria's, these students will not get the high paying jobs as we think. If it's only to train them for the job market as the end in our philosophy of knowledge acquisition, with time, we will produce a number of them that the relevant sectors in the country could not absorb. We will have nurses, pharmacists, engineers struggling to get job or something to do with their skill but with little success. They will join arts and social science graduates in the job market. We can cite the example of Kano which sponsored students to study these courses abroad with some having no job after their return (this doesn't mean the program is bad). We all know that in our towns there are graduates of engineering and science related courses who are jobless years after their NYSC. How many computer science graduates do you know selling fura by the roadside today? But the question is why would they join the redundant job seekers in the labour market despite reading science related courses? The answer is, because the country's economy is broken.
National economy is a philosophy, of History, sociology, anthropology...
With knowledge, STATE, SOCIETY and NATIONAL ECONOMY are fashioned. Nigeria is not lacking IT to begin thinking of development, but application of knowledge derived from all fileds of study.
Baba-Bala Katsina
Tsangayar Malam Dan Malam
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