‘Forget History, Repeat Its Mistakes’: Why The Historian’s Craft Is Important For Democratic Citizenship In Nigeria
The Oasis Reporters
October 16, 2026
By Kenneth Azaigba
Democracy fails when it suffers from memory cancer and it is for this reason that historians as social physicians are required.
There is a common misconception that history is merely antiquarianism, that is; the chronicling of dates and the biographies of the dead.
This is fallacious. History is better understood as a craft analogous to engineering, carpentry, or medicine. It is a disciplined practice with it’s methods and ethics. It is through the exercise of this craft that democratic citizenship is formed. The Historian’s craft rests on three foundational pillars:
a)EVIDENCE: The historian does not guess. He asks: Where is your source? Archive? Oral testimony? This ethic is not only academic; it is civic training.
b) CONTEXT: The historian never looks at an event in isolation. He plots a context. When the government says the current palliatives are a new act of generosity, the historian says, no. This is not new. It is a child of the oil boom of the 1970s, a child of SAP in 1986, a child of SURE-P in 2012, of TraderMoni in 2018.
The historian must not be a lazy critic, he must appreciate the challenges before the government in proposing policy options. Without context, every policy looks like either punishment or miracle. With context, you see the historical pattern.
c) CONTINUITY & CHANGE: What has changed and what has refused to change? Our phones changed from Nokia 3310 to iPhone 15. But what has not changed since 1960? We still export crude and import refined fuel.
HOW DOES THE HISTORIAN CREATE CITIZENS?
a) We fight against forgetting.When power says “This hardship is temporary,” the historian says, “We heard that in 1986. SAP was also temporary.” If we forget history, we repeat its mistakes.
b) We fight against falsehood. In an age of AI photos and WhatsApp factories, source criticism — Who wrote this? When? For whom? What does he gain? – is a survival skill for democracy.
c) We fight for plural truth. Power wants one official history. The historian says; bring all voices. That pluralism of stories is training for pluralism of voters.
WHAT MUST WE DO?
1. Return History to schools — not as praise-singing of great men, but as critical thinking.
2. Historians must leave the archive. Leave the classroom. Get involved in the political space. Go to the market, to radio, to WhatsApp, to podcasts. If we don’t write history in public and for the public, historical illiterates will manipulate history for us.
3. Fund and digitize our archives. Record our elders before they die. A nation that burns its archives has no future.
We cannot be a democracy of ballot boxes without being a democracy of memory. The ballot is paper. Memory is power. The politician creates voters, citizens are formed by history. The past saves the future. We must avoid democratic illiteracy because it is dangerous for nation building. Let’s make History a compulsory subject in schools.
Kenneth Azaigba is a Professor of Political and Security History in the Department of History and Strategic Studies, Federal University, Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State.
