The Nigerian Military and the Issue of State Control of Mission Schools

Abstract

Education is fundamental to any society. In its broadest sense it includes not merely curriculum and educational theory but all of the pressures that help to shape peoples' minds. Education, both formal and informal, is the vehicle through which society transmits its values, its “dreams”, and its worldview to its youth. Precolonial southern Nigerian societies had created educational systems that promoted their own values and moral standards as the guiding principles for their children. The function of such education, in addition to occupational preparation in agriculture, crafts, and religion, was the inculcation of a sense of communal responsibility. Christian missionaries who came in the nineteenth century brought with them European culture and traditions. These traditions were propagated and concretized in the mission schools which were tolerated by the British colonial government. But the colonial government frequently reexamined its views concerning the objectives of the mission schools. During the nationalist period (1945–1960) the nature of politics, particularly in southeastern Nigeria, led to further reevaluation of the basic role of missions in secular education. Then the military officers came to power in 1966. They shared the perspective that the idea of the elimination of mission schools within the Nigerian educational system again should be given serious consideration.