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.

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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. 3
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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
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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

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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.

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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
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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
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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.

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