A textbook written by Sola Akinyemi, titled ‘Fundamentals of Civic Education for Basic 8’, has spurred controversy because of the author’s lack of quality research.
On page 38 of the book, the author highlighted some historic figures in history and termed them “courageous people in the society history”.
On the list, he mentioned Moremi of Ife, Efunroye Tinubu, Bayajida, Amina of Zaria and Jaja of Opobo, and provided some anecdotes on their existence at various times in history.
The same page contains the subject of controversy. When speaking about Moremi Ajasoro of Ile-Ife in Osun State, Akinyemi claimed the heroine played a substantial role in the defeat of “Igbos who always came to capture her people as slaves”.
Part of his text on Moremi reads:
“Moremi of Ife: Moremi Ajasoro as popularly called hailed from Offa. She lived in the 12th century. She was married to King Oranmiyan of Ife (later Oyo).
“In her days, there was a serious problem in her community. The problem was the invasion by the Igbos who always came to capture her people as slaves. She felt concerned and decided to solve this problem at all cost. She allowed herself to be taken captive by the enemy and because of her beauty, their king married her.
Source: Twitter.
“While she was there, she got all their secrets and fled back to Ile-Ife and gave her people all the information they needed to defeat the enemies. Eventually, the enemies were defeated and she was reinstated to her husband, King Oranmiyan of Ife (later Oyo.”
“In her days, there was a serious problem in her community. The problem was the invasion by the Igbos who always came to capture her people as slaves. She felt concerned and decided to solve this problem at all cost. She allowed herself to be taken captive by the enemy and because of her beauty, their king married her.
Source: Twitter.
REACTIONS: ‘SEEDS OF HATRED’
The author’s assertion that there was a war between the Igbo and Ile-Ife prompting Moremi to act as a bait to win, has been described as an attempt to wrongly educate schoolchildren with false historical facts.
According to commenters, the action of the author was deliberately aimed at causing ethic hatred.
I am opening a space for us to discuss this lies. Dear Igbo people that their kids are schooling in Southwest, make sure your kids are not using this book, until Sola Akinyemi comes to tell us how Igbos invaded southwest.
Ada Idemmili Ada Jesus, a Twitter user, said in a post.
Seeing “Tinubu” and “Igbo Invaders” in the same page is pushing a definitive political indoctrination agenda. Starting to plant seeds of hatred in minds of babies, a conflict that has never existed in our human history. Sad what politics does.
Jerry N. Omoluabi, using @Real_JerryN, commented.
To imagine that it is the Ugbo people of current Ondo state (they are [Y]orubas by the way) that used to invade Ife, and not Igbo people from all the way a[c]ross the Niger.
@FitzHaastrup commented
Since Ada Jesus posted the tweet yesterday, it has attracted close to 38,000 interactions, and many are still recirculating it across media platforms.
FACTS FROM HISTORIANS
Commenting on the issue, some historians told FIJ that there was no connection between Moremi and the Igbo people at any time in recorded history.
Owojuyigbwe Praise, a doctor of philosophy and history lecturer at Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo, said the claim was misguided.
“That is not correct. Moremi’s history is connected with the Ugbo people who are in the present day Ondo State, and not Igbo people. It could be an error from the author or his publisher,” she said.
On his part, Dr. Victor Omojeje, also a lecturer at the same college, described Akinyemi’s claim as false.
“Let me clarify it to you. Moremi was a powerful woman in Ile-Ife in the distant past. We were made to understand that she existed during the hunting and gathering period. The Ugbo people were constantly waylaying Ile-Ife, and she was married to Ooni of Ife at the time. She patriotically volunteered herself as a prisoner of war for the invading enemies,” Omojeje told FIJ.
He further said the Ugbo king became attracted to Moremi and married her: “The king married Moremi, this afforded her the opportunity to study the Ugbo’s war tactics, and she later escaped to Ile-Ife where he divulged all the secrets to Ile-Ife warriors.
“Research has shown that the enemies were from the Ugbo community in the present-day Ilaje and Ese-Odo local government areas in Ondo State. No historian would ever tell you they were Igbo people. How would they have come from that far? There was no way they would have crossed River Niger at the time. There was also the Benin army on the way that would have made them retreat.”
MY SOURCE WAS THE INTERNET’
Akinyemi, a Lagos State-based author, responded to FIJ over the phone on Tuesday, saying he consulted internet sources and some books in writing the controversial book.
“I am the author of the book. It was first published in 2009, and I have produced many versions after that. Many of us who write in this generation rely on the internet sources like Wikipedia. To say I did not use the internet would be a lie, but I also consulted some books,” Akinyemi said.
Asked whether he got government approval before releasing the book to the public, he responded in the negative.
“Lagos State government has a policy that has condensed civic education, social studies and security studies into one topic, and they expect authors to produce their books in agreement with the policy. For this book, I did not submit a copy for vetting. I did not obtain any approval,” he said.
“It was in a recent version that I included Moremi. But I will do more research on that and update the current version before this year ends.”
The Lagos State Ministry of Education had not responded to an FIJ’s emailed request for comment on this story at press time.
FIJ
