by Alexander O. Onukwue

Amidst the wave of comments about the revision of religious curriculum for secondary schools, interesting options are coming to play. Apparently, some are rooting for the replacement or adaptation of the ‘western’ religious instructions to introduce the study of African traditional deities.

The Ministry of Education has carried out something of review of curriculum for secondary schools to cut down on the number of subjects being offered in line with what has been referred to as “international best practices”. This led to previously exclusively taught subjects like CRS, IRS, Civic Education, Social Studies and Security Education being brought under one umbrella as ‘Religion and National Values’ (RNV).

Some proponents of the traditional religious knowledge want to make the connection between the “values” sprouting from the beliefs and customs associated with these African and Nigerian deities and the present striving for National values.

But given that the majority of Nigerians have moved from traditional worship, the teaching of such mythologies would, at best, only be an attempt to revive cultural awareness and the evolution of history.

The outright replacement of the now established Christian and Islamic studies with the study of deities would face some particular challenges: which particular deities to be studied, as there are as many as there are languages in Nigeria? Literally every man has his own deity in his backyard, and would reserve the right to have his child study it instead of some other established one.

By a rough classification, Sango would be the identified deity for the Yoruba speaking while Amadioha would be the most recognized one for the South-East. Then again, those are just the general categorizations aided by Nollywood.

Should there be a public hearing on the matter of traditional religions, the Ministry of Education can expect to the inundated with many sophisticated forms of deities, many of which would scare even Nollywood directors to put on the screen for Nigerian viewers.

Editor