Hamza A.
Garba1, Hafiz Jibril2, Khalil A. Abba3 &
Tasiu A. Sani4
1&2 Department of History,
3Department of Social Sciences
Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso College of
Advanced and Remedial Studies Tudun Wada, Kano-Nigeria
4Department of History,
Aminu Kano College of Islamic and Legal Studies, Kano
Abstract
The introduction of western
education in Nigeria, from the beginning of British colonialism has a
historical origin arising from the rejection-acceptance dichotomy, by the north
and south respectively. The subsequent western colonial domination led to the inevitable
superimposition of western form of education upon the indigenous people of the
country. The paper would also argue that the Nigeria educated elites have
played a vital role towards anti-colonial struggle in Nigeria from 1930s- 1960.
This article further examines that British induced educational model created a
westernized elites of the country during the colonial and postcolonial periods
occupied significant positions in the political and economic life. Those who
did not took western education relegated and deprived of the benefits that
comes with western education. Accordingly, those who did not took western
education thereby were not permitted to obtain white color jobs in the colonial
and post-colonial administration offices. Paradoxically, the same educational
system also provided Nigerians with a modernist ideology with which to first
imagine a unified nation and then mobilize Nigerians the colonial exploitation,
which led to the accomplishment of political sovereignty, in 1960s.
Keywords: Colonialism, Western
Education, Nationalism, Cultural Hegemony and Decolonization.
1.1 Introduction
The first
section of this paper will argue that the introduction of western education in
Nigeria, from the beginning of British rule 1900-1960, has a historical origin
arising from the rejection-acceptance dichotomy, by the north and south
respectively, of the external influences and innovation process of
modernization, this will later on examine in this article. For almost three
centuries before the coming of the ‘’western form of education in to Nigeria
through the Christian missionaries in the 19th century, the
‘’Quranic form ‘’ of education with its Arabic culture- orientation and tenets
of Islam had been imposed upon the ‘’ Nigerian indigenous forms’’ of education,
particularly in the northern parts of the country. The subsequent western
colonial domination led to the inevitable superimposition of western form of
education upon both the indigenous and ‘Quranic’ forms of education
(Abdurrahman 2012,p5). The article would briefly examine the historical
antecedents of the educational imbalances between the Northern and southern
part of Nigeria from the early period of British rule in Nigeria.
The paper
would also examines that western education came to serve for two paradoxical
functions: not only did it become the instrument of British colonialism for
training the first generation of Nigerian elites to be employed in the colonial
administrations, but also help the later generations about forging an
ethical/ideological ground to resist British dominance in the country (John
2008, p43). The colonial elites saw themselves as nation-makers that a genuine
decolonization meaning a process of ending colonial rule and dismantling colonial
institutions in Nigeria has to be taken. Thus, the colonial elites in Nigeria
in time became discontent with the imperialist grip by turned the ideals of
modernity, such as self-determination, into the tool of ‘decolonizing’ the
minds of Nigerians from their cognitive submission to British as a culture that
was allegedly superior to, thus entitled to, rule Nigerians (Falola and Heaton
2008, p.5). The article further argued that the ‘anti-colonial’ agitation in
Nigeria, which led to the independence of the country in 1960, was pioneered by
educated elites in Nigeria who had previously been couched by the British
colonial administration in Nigeria (Falola 2003, 21). The paper has finally
justify that it was the efforts made by the Nigerian educated elites towards
anti-colonial struggle in Nigeria from 1920s, and 1930-1960, which finally led
to dismantling of colonial rule and the independence of the country in 1960.
1.2 Introduction of Western
Education in Southern and Northern Nigeria
Prior
to the colonial conquest and domination in the 19century, most of the northern
states were Islamic in religious belief and education orientation. The Qur’an
was by large a necessary derivation of Islam. The tenets of the Islam relied
principally on the Qur’an is the Muslims what the Bible is to the Christians
(Okobiah 2012, p5). In order to effectively participate in prayer and perform
religious rites, it was necessary to educate the converts with the rudiments of
the Qur’an, which was initially written in Arabic language and form. Overtime,
the Quranic education became a formal literacy form of education provided to
the generality of the adherents. Thus education implies literacy (reading and
writing); the Qurʾanic education was by far more widespread in the provision of
education to the masses of the people in the Islamic dominated areas of the
northern part of the country (Falola and Heaton 2005, p.43).
The western formal education was introduced in
to Nigeria through the evangelization activities of the Christian missionaries
in the Middle of the 19th century. The principal aim of the
missionaries was to converts the Africans to Christianity. The major content of
the teaching and learning was based on the Bible. From the same historical
antecedents, Christianity, which was herald of western formal education, had
its node of diffusion and influences in the southern part of the country. Prior
to the creation of the Southern and Northern protectorates in 1900 and their
subsequent amalgamation in 1914, the colonial administration had directed the
Christian missionaries to limit their evangelical activities to the South and
the non-Muslims or ‘pagan areas’ of the north (Adewale 2005, p.5).
A
number of fruitless efforts were made by the missionaries and the colonial
administration to introduce schools with emphases on non-religious and moral
instructions to replace the conventional religious instruction. Under the
umbrella of the church missionary society (C.M.S.), the Sudan Interior Mission
(SIM) The Sudan United Mission (S.U.M.) The Roman Catholic Mission and the
Cambridge University Missionary Party, programs were designed to facilitate the
enlistment of the children of the Moslems to western form of education without
necessarily aiming to convert them to Christianity. For examples Dr. W.R.
Miller of the party movement planned to establish schools where by moral
instruction would replace religious instructions for the children of the emirs
and their chiefs. The emirs solicited to send two children of their recognized
families in the provinces to the school under the supervision of Dr. Miller.
The school was experimented for a period of one year subject to a review by the
joint committee of Emirs (Okobiah 2012, p.20). The school was opened in 1907 in
Zaria but none of the sons of the emirs from the provinces were present for
enrolment. At the end, the emir of Zaria had to send only fifteen children from
some families within the town of Zaria (Ajayi 2006, p.3). There several cases
of non-response to the programed designed to enable the northerners’ take
advantage of the emergent western education.
An
important characteristic of this period was the emergence of the Kano Native
Administration as an agency for educational development. According to Sir
Charles Orr, the educational requirement though necessary in the early phase of
British over-rule fell under three heads. First, priority was to be given to
intelligent natives of the Mallams class who would be taught Roman characters
for writing Hausa, colloquial English, and finally reading and writing English,
Arithmetic, and geography, so that they might qualify for clerkships in
Government and native Administration offices and gradually replace the native
clerks who had hitherto been drawn from other west African colonies having
western schools. Second, there was need for some sort of special training for
the ruling class likely to become chiefs or emirs. Third, it was thought
desirable to provide general elementary schools for children with the secular
basis, with industrial teaching (Fika 1978, p.234).
With
this objectives in view, the first colonial educational experiments in the
Northern emirates were begun at Kano in the course of 1909. Early in that year,
a beginning was made with the inauguration of a school for the sons of native
chiefs in the protectorate. All Kano dignitaries, including the emirs were
persuaded to send their children. To aid British educational objectives, the
emir of Kano was persuaded to make an annual grant 1000 pounds to these new
institutions from the fund of the recently constituted Treasury. In the course
of the following years, these schools were expanded on their curricular
rationalized to fit harmoniously with the existing political and social system
(Fika 1978, p236).
The
educational imbalances between the northern and southern parts of the country,
it is important to note that it was the southern states under the Action Group
(A.G.) parties in the western region that launched the first free primary
education for its communities in 1955. In 1957, the Eastern region launched a
similar programed. These ‘’singular’’ educational polite of both the then
western and Eastern regions created further impetus for increased primary
enrolment, which in turn triggered massive increase in secondary schools
enrolment of the 1960s and the chain effects of undergraduates enrolment of the
1970s to the advantage of the south. In fact by 1960 when the primary school
enrolment in the north was only 282,849 pupils, the figure for the south about
2,629,770 accounting for 90. 1 % of the national even the south had only 44.3%
of the national total population (Okobiah 2012, p. 23).
Before
the federal Government launched its own Universal Primary Education in 1976,
all states in the north and south were requested to submit their needs to
ensure successful takeoff and sustenance of increased primary schools
enrolment. It is therefore difficult puzzled at that after 22 years of the
federal U.P.E. scheme, primary school enrolment in the north was still under
65% on the average with some states below 20% by 1998(Ajayi 2006, p.22).
At
the time of independence in 1960, the situation had not changed in any
demonstrable way. The primary school enrolment for the northern states was only
282,000(9.9%) as against 2,629,770 (90.1%) for the southern states. In 1942,
secondary schools enrolment was 1,570 (25.9%) in the north as against 6,700
(74.1%) for the southern states. In 1960 the secondary school enrolled students
in the north was 6,264 while in the southern states the enrollment rose to
48,971 (88.7%). In 1975, the number of enrollment students in the northern
states was 105,500 as against 498,700 (82.5%) in the southern states of the
country. In 1980 the number of enrollment students in the northern states was
247,527 as against 1,305,808 (84. 1%) in the southern states of the country (Okobiah
2012, p.52).
1.3 Role of Nigerian Educated
Elites towards Anti-colonial Struggle in Nigeria, 1930s-1960
This
paper believes that during British Colonialism, which is the process of
political economic and socio-cultural domination of Nigeria in the early part
of the 19th Century. Colonial education was induced by British in
Nigeria with aim to get the Nigerians to assist them in the process of colonial
exploitation of Nigerian resources. The paper also believes that the
westernized elites in Nigeria were the pioneered of Nigerian independence from
the British rule, from 1909-1960. Education serves as the process of changing
the external realm ‘politics and economy ‘of British rule in Nigeria from
Colonial to postcolonial rule 1900-1960 (John 2008, p15). The paper further
argued that colonial rule had inspired anti-colonial resistance from the
beginning, although, it had not organized around a pan-Nigerian consciousness,
instead making appeals to race consciousness (Falola and Heaton 2008, p112).
The
motivating factors which lead to anti-colonial struggle in Nigeria from
1930s-1960s will be examined briefly. Both of the educated elites from northern
Nigeria and southern parts of Nigeria developed nationalist ideologies from
1914 to 1940s and 1950s, as a means of undermining Britain’s ideational and
imperialistic hold on Nigeria. The nationalist believed that one of the basic assumptions
underlying the imposition of British cultural hegemony of colonialism in
Nigeria’s was the notion of white supremacy. Accordingly, the colonial
structure of ruling was characterized by racial inequality and discrimination.
A policy of separateness was maintained in all spheres of life (Nile L. 2008,
p.10).
From
the basis of the theory of cultural hegemony basically argues that, people
change themselves when they can change the structure (external realm-politics
and economies), but, for them to first transform outer reality, they need to
first change their perception of reality. When the knowledge of outer reality
becomes differed, because, reality it self becomes differed, their agency can
change it self-according to this knowledge on self and outer reality. In other
word, the colonial elites in Nigeria’s used the knowledge, which they have
acquired during colonial rule to change the structure of colonial rule in
Nigeria. The theory of cultural hegemony is also argue that the dominant social
group in the capitalist society aim is how to maintain power the necessary
degree of’’’ ideological unity’’ to secure the consent of the governed (Gramsci,
p 24).
Repeating
the same point one more time, the role of education argues that, education is
the principal method through which societies transmit knowledge from one
generation to another, learn how to develop and accumulate knowledge, preserve
certain values, and transform individual sense of perception about the world. It
is through education that the westernize elites in Nigeria have learnt how to
become more socially and politically conscious, and how to increase their
ability to acquire and use knowledge to improve their lives for the
socio-economic and political progress of their nation. Education also instilled
the liberal and democratic ideologies to the citizens and liberates their
people from the process of decolonization (Comtassel 2012, P.25).
However,
education set the process of political independence in Nigeria’s and
decolonization from the British rule. These processes of ending the colonial
rule were spearheaded by the colonial elites in Nigeria (1900-1960). Therefore,
education have instill the idea of nationalism in the minds of Nigerians which have
assisted them to become politically independent in the 1960s and set-up new
socio economic and political progress of the nation even after the post
colonial period (Sinclair 2004,p 49-61).
The
motivating factors, which lead to, the anti-colonial struggle in Nigeria from
1920s-1960s will be examine briefly. The new elites believed that one of the
basic assumptions underlying the imposition of British cultural hegemony of
colonialism in Nigeria’s was the notion of white supremacy. Accordingly, the colonial
structure of ruling was characterized by racial inequality and discrimination.
A policy of separateness was maintained in all spheres of life. Colonialism
resulted in, and fed from, not only political and economic domination but also
cultural and intellectual domination. During the opening decades of the
twentieth century, the educated Nigerians were exposed to contemporary
movements and literature, which championed the dignity and political
emancipation of the Black people. Foremost, in this writings of such figures
like Edward Wilmot Blyden (a Liberian; WEB Dubois and Booker T. Washington,
both of whom were Africans-American; Marcus Garvey a Jamaican). The result was
the enlightenment to the people on the impact of colonial domination on their
country which had greatly assisted toward the decolonization and political
independence in the 1960s (Mazrui 1978, p27).
Therefore,
educated elites who instilled the idea of nationalism to their brethren during
the post-war era sensed a close proximity between political/economic
emancipation and that of emancipation from the sense of being secondary or
trivial to the ‘White’ people (Nyerere 1968, p44-45). To them, the latter one
was the real impediment to the materialization of the former. In other word,
national was born in Nigeria in the knowledge of that country would never
become freed from the colonial influence until, and unless, it finds a way out
of its readily given submission to western way of life.
The
‘post-colonial’ elites in Nigeria used education, by this token, to instill the
idea of nationalism, in order to enable a sense of independence from external
inferences, which, counter-productively, produces some other undesired
outcomes. This new mode of nationalism came to contradict cultural groups with
different ethnic and religious backgrounds. The version of nationalism brought
by the post-colonial politics, in Nigeria, refers to African nationalism: a
subjective feeling of kinship or affinity shared by people of African descent.
The Africans and Nigerians have considered them selves as people who have the
same shared cultural norms, traditional institutions, racial heritage, and a
common historical experience shared by nearly all of the Africans (Mazrui 1978,
p.40). While the imperialist was an external power who exploited the resources
of Africans by imposing a system of colonialism which means, the process of
economic and political domination as well as socio-cultural domination by the
British imperialism in Nigeria’s during the early part of the 19th
century. Along with this sense, of Nigerian nationalism of shared identity is a
collective desire to maintain one’s own cultural, social, and political values
independent from the external powers such as British rule in Nigeria (Rabie
2007,p 218).
According
to the same argument, the educated colonial elites introduced the idea of
‘decolonization ‘to Nigerians in order to remove the structure of British colonial
rule in Nigeria and to become independent from the external powers’
manipulations) Boa hen 1987, p 23). Each one of the following was among their
ambitions: the end of the colonial rules, dismantling of the colonial
institutions and divorcing from those colonially inscribed values that aimed
exploitation of the receiving/colonized culture. Precisely, decolonization in
Nigeria was part of a wider process called nationalism, headed and assumed by
the (Western-) educated elites and mostly worked to bring new social, economic
and political dimensions following the end of colonial rule in 1960 (Mazrui 1999,p 76).
The
anticolonial ‘agitation’ was pioneered by educated elite who had previously
been alienated by the British colonial administration in Nigeria and its
introduced system of exploitative nature of colonialism in Nigeria which is the
process of oppressing the ‘native’ Nigerians through the use of their
traditional rulers during the colonial period. Thus, the educated elites found
ways of challenging the imperial dominance, which presented itself in forms of
British cultural hegemony. These nation-makers saw that a genuine
decolonization from imperialistic grip took more than laying place certain
material conditions in economic or political life of the newly independent
country (Jeremia 2006,p 40-45). What was also needed, to them, was to ‘decolonize’
the minds of Nigerians from their cognitive submission to British as a culture
that was allegedly superior to, thus entitled to rule, Nigerians (Falola and
Heaton 2003,p 21-22).
It
was as early as 1920 whereupon, these educated elites formed what came to known
as the first political association with the view of protesting some of the
colonial practices. The most popular of such associations was the National
Congress of British West Africa (NCBWA), established in 1920, with members from
three British Colonies in West Africa, namely the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone and
Gambia. They in tandem advocated the unity of the four British West African
colonies. It also demanded, among other things, educated elites’ participation
in the colonial legislative councils, and put an end to racial discrimination
in the civil service. In the congress were present some of the western-educated
Nigerians such as Patrick Campbell, clergy man; Dr. Richard savage, a
physician; Thomas Horacio Jackson, a news paper editor and so on. The
nationalist leaders of the 1920s and 1930s also established political parties,
which they hoped, would aid their access to participation in the colonial
government. The Nigerian National Democratic party (NNDP) was founded in 1923
and become the first modern political party in Nigeria with the aim to
challenge the British imperialism in Nigeria (Falola 2003,p 21).
However,
during the period of post-second world war (1945), the period saw the
radicalization of role of educated elites and their nationalist ideologies.
They began using a palpably sharper rhetoric in their advocacy of
decolonization and political independence from the British colonialism. This
period coincides with the Great Depression and briefly precedes the WWII
(Jeremia 2006, p53). When this bloody conflict drew to an end, new institutions
arrived in regards of colonialism within a new global setting defined by
post-war international power reconfiguration (Freire 2005, p.15). As will be
explained, these structural alterations were to spell great repercussion about
nationalism. The slump in global trade that came with the said depression
brought a lot of economic hardship to the colonized economic spheres,
manifested in falling prices, slashed wages, and unemployment. The economic conditions
led to tensions, which found expression in anti-colonial sentiment and
activities. The railway workers’ strike of 1931 in pursues of better wages was
a direct response to the depressed economic situation in Nigeria in order to
liberate their people from the British system of colonization in Nigeria and to
become politically independent from the imperialist. (Oyedele 1998,p 71).
The
nationalists during this period became discontent with the heightened
consequences of the economic depression. The Nigerians were drafted in large
numbers to the British army, and many of them performed their duties in the
Eastern and North African theatres of the war. The soldiers returned from
active service to meet unemployment at home. During their service abroad they have
imbibed the British war propaganda of an alleged struggle against Nazis; and
that they were fighting for the cause of freedom, this as expected fueled
nationalistic consciousness on their part. The ex-service men now started to inspire
the application of these ideals to Nigerians. Emboldened by the wartime
experience during which they saw the myth of white superiority exploded, they
became move politically active as many of them joined the anticolonial educated
elites and other Nigerian-engineered movements in order to expel colonialist
British (Oduwobi 2011, p.1).
The
educated elites embraced nationalism with the aim of re-negotiating the
structure of British colonialism as the war, changing nature of the global
politics and economic tribulations brought a more convenient situation (Rodney
1973, P.19). The major European imperialist nations, Britain and France were
now countered by the United States and the Soviet Union, two protagonists of
the Cold War era with their own versions of anticolonial agenda. During the
war, President Roosevelt of the United States made it clear to the British
authorities that it was not fighting to uphold the British Empire (Jeremia
2006, p56). Nigerian nationalists derived massive inspiration and encouragement
from American anticolonial sentiment, President Franklin Roosevelt’s
interpretation of the Atlantic Charter a 1941 Joint Anglo-American statement
enjoying them to “respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of
government under which they will live.’’ It was a major source of confidence
for the elites and nationalists in Nigeria. Contrary to the belief of British
Prime Minister Winston Churchill that “the proclamation was applicable only to
Europe not to colonial dependencies (Falola and Heaton 2003, p23-24),” Roosevelt
provided a broader interpretation that the Atlantic Charter was actually
binding to the whole world. The Nigeria educated elite used this rare
opportunity to set the radical process of decolonization to subsequently
accomplish independence in 1960 (Falola and Heaton 2003, p23).
On
the basis of this new development, the new nationalist leaders or the educated
elite leaders sought and enjoyed mass support in the anticolonial struggle.
They incorporated the movement into diverse sectors of the society including
organized labor, professional bodies, and socio-ethnic political associations
with the same purpose of ending the British’s cultural hegemony and attendant
colonialism. New leaders such as Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Aminu Kano
and others emerged in the 1940s and 1950s. Unlike the nationalist movement of
1920s, this class of nationalists, proposed a self-determination agenda, and
formed nationalist parties for the purpose of finalizing a decade-long
subjugation of Nigerians in the hands of imperialistic states. Included in
these parties were the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroon (NCNC),
established in 1941 and led by Macaulay, and Azikiwe; the Action Group (AG),
formed in 1951, and led by Awolowo; and the Northern peoples Congress (NPC),
established in the 1940s under the leadership of Ahmadu Bello. The nationalist
established newspapers such as the Lagos Daily News, for example, as one of the
avenues to propagate radical nationalist ideas between both the Northern and
southern Nigerian to resist the British colonial practices in Nigeria (Falola
2003,p23).
Political parties were ethnically and
regionally based during the anticolonial movement. The NCNC with a strong hold
on the eastern provinces was a party with Igbo dominance. The AG of the West
arose out of Yoruba cultural groups, the Egba Omoduduwa, and become a strong
stakeholder in the West. In the same vein, the NPC was a Northern party
dominated by the Hausa people in the Northern part of the Nigeria. However, the
parties managed to work together to put up a common front against the colonial
power. In line with this, the emergent unity of different peoples from both
Northern and southern Nigeria was about finalizing the British’s physical and
cultural hegemony. Thus, the radical nationalist agitations compelled the
political reforms and constitutional changes which propelled Nigerians towards
internal autonomy and ultimate independence. After 1945, Nigerians experienced
a number of constitutions. The Richard Constitution of 1947 was the beginning
of the road to independence. It divided the country into three regions along
ethnic/religious lines, the northern Nigerian region, Islamic in religious
orientation, was the home of Hausa tribe and Fulani; the western region was
peopled by the Yoruba, many of whom were Christians; and the Eastern region was
inhabited by the Igbo, a predominant Christian people. Under the constitution,
each region retained its own assembly, although a central legislation was also
established (Adebiyi 2008, p.1).
The
educated elites in Nigeria mounted pressure to the imperialist with aim to end
the colonization in Nigeria led to constitutional reforms moved Nigeria’s
internal autonomy and provided politicians opportunities to compete for
power. The educated elite and other
nationalist leaders continued to clamor for progress toward political autonomy
in Nigeria. To serve for this end came about yet another constitution,
promulgated in 1951 as an improvement to the Richard constitution. As a result
of this development of political decolonization from the educated elites in
Nigeria so as to become politically independent from the imperialist, the
political powers offered constitutional reforms triggered both the ethnic
cleavages and the regional conflict to react for political participation. A new
constitution came into being in 1954 and retained the three-region structure of
Nigeria. It also made the country a federation and gave the regions the mandate
to seek self-governance in 1956, and subsequently the Northern region in 1959(Adewale
2005,p.7).The final transfer of power to the indigenous educated elite occurred
on October 1, 1960 when Nigerians obtained full independence (Dibua 2006,p 70). This final outcome should be
directly read in reference to the role of education for the social
transformation as it formed the most substantial piece towards uniting
different ethnic groups around a common national identity. (Falola 2003,p 24-25).
Meanwhile,
this catharsis found a wide array of popularity among Nigerians from different
walks of life, such as professional groups including lawyers, and doctors who
tended to align themselves. Bourgeoisie-who were impatient with the status quo
and eager to have the system transformed so that they could better themselves and
perhaps help others as well. Also the westernized Africans who were the immediate
beneficiaries of the Africanization of the top government positions came about
as a result of such reawakening to the self-realization; the urban workers
became a part of this political discourse in search for improving their wages
and working conditions through trade unions and so on. The peasant who made the informal sector of
colonial economies joined the ranks of nationalism with a strong interest in,
one-day, forming national bourgeoisie. The cash crops farmers some of whom were
wealthy, and all of whom constituted a powerful and important segment of
Africans including Nigeria’s, along with peasant farmers in the country sidled
up with the new elites with a view of obtaining extended guarantees to the
access to the emerging national economy. Their basic concern had to do with
agriculture; they protested policies that manipulated the market prices of
their products in the city markets, restricted ownership of some properties by
the colonial administration and charged them with the exorbitant fees for their
business. The above explanation on the impact of British colonialism in
Nigeria’s made the educated elite to succeed when they had reorganized the
anticolonial movement. Because all the aforementioned categories of individuals
suffered from the consequences of foreign exploitation, thus, became ardent
supporters of nationalism as what they saw as a cure to it (Hull 1980,p 120).
1.4 Conclusion
This
paper concludes that education was responsible in the process of instilling new
ideas, values, skills and sense of perception among the peoples of Nigerians
during the period of British cultural hegemony of colonialism. Behind the
Britain’s hold on the country’s economic resources rested an ideology which
somewhat legitimized the upper hand of colonialists visa a visa colonized
during the early part of the 19th century. Thus, the chapter has
argued that the colonial educated elite used education to change the structure
of British cultural hegemony of colonialism rather than the majority Nigerians by
instilled the others Nigerians the ideological aspect of nationalism and other
ways of challenging the British dominance by setting anticolonial movements in
Nigeria.
Colonial
education, therefore serve as the basis for the process of decolonization,
nationalism in the minds of educated Nigerians which made them to instilled the
impact of imperial rule to other Nigerians and form anticolonial movements
right from 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, 1950s and 1960s when they finally changed
the structure of British cultural hegemony of colonialism. The paper based its
argument from the basis of the theory of cultural hegemony that believed that
individual could change the structure of the capitalist society external realm
politics and economy, when they first transform their knowledge of reality and
liberate them selves from the colonial oppression. The educated elite has
finally continued to set- up new socio-economic and political progress of the
modern Nigeria just as in other parts of the world in a modern form such as
other capitalist society.
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