History, The Historian and The Nation. The Voice of a Nigerian Historian

This volume is a collection of fifteen lectures and seminar papers delivered between 1979 and 2002 by a leading historian and educationist. It addresses inter-group relations in the context of the importance of history to a Nigeria still engaged in the task of nation-building and national development; and against the background of a national educational policy which, since the 1980s, has marginalised history. Included are eight lectures delivered when the author was teaching at the University of Ibadan, and seven thereafter. Whilst together the papers look at Nigeria as a whole, specific issues are treated, including Benin, Delta Province, The Niger Delta, the Aboh Kingdom, the Isoko, and the Akassa War. Professor Obaro Ikima taught history at the University of Ibadan from 1964-1990, and served as Head of Department, and Dean of Arts.