By Henry Umoru
A Nigerian historian and Africanist, Chief Anthony Prest has described the returning of history studies to schools curriculum by President Bola Tinubu as a welcome development.
Prest who gave the commendation yesterday in Abuja at an open art exhibition, said that no society can progress without the people knowing about the history.
Prest is the son of Chief Arthur Prest, one of the founders of Action Group and deputy leader to the Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo; said, “I am happy that Asiwaju brought history back to our schools. That’s dynamism. You know history is very important. Our children need to be told everything. You can see there’s a big debate in America about teaching the history of slavery. History is a good thing.
“ They are now teaching history in schools. Nigeria is in for a beautiful time. Very soon, Nigerians will enjoy. We need to be patient with Mr. President. The man is working 24 hours a day. They don’t sleep in the villa. They are working. So it’s amazing.
“Very, very, very important. Our children need to be told everything. You can see there’s a big debate in America now about teaching the history of slavery in America. Donald Trump has banned it for his reasons. He is a great man, too. But I think history is a good thing.
“We are also going to start educating our kids on Panama in primary and secondary schools in Abuja. We are going to provide buses and mobile exhibition tents that tell the story of slavery, its abolition, major players in the illicit trade and the liberation of Africa.
“Nigerians need to begin to understand that we come from possibly the richest country in the world. I am hopeful Nigerians will enjoy it. We just need to be patient with Mr President. The man is working 24 hours a day. They don’t sleep in the villa.”
Prest’s tribute comes barely three months after the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, disclosed that the President has mandated the return of Nigerian History as a subject in primary and secondary schools after it was scrapped from the education curriculum in 2009.
The Minister disclosed this when he was featured as a guest on Channels Television’s End-of-Year Special Review show.
Speaking further, Prest also expressed support for President Tinubu for upholding the struggle for democratic value rights long before he became a senator and the leader of the country.
Answering questions from Journalists, Prest said, “My name is Chief Anthony Tosan Prest. I am the son of Chief Arthur Prest. Chief Arthur Prest was one of the founders of Action Group. He was deputy leader to Awolowo for 10 years. He was Nigeria’s ambassador to the Court of St. James, which is in the UK. And when he was ambassador, I was a child at Northumberland Avenue,
in the 1960s, during the height of the freedom movement in America. Those were the days immediately after independence when Nigeria and Africa were abuzz with freedom, happiness, and joy.
“I sat down on the laps of people like James Baldwin. The Nigerian embassy in London at that time was the beehive of the emancipation movement in the 60s and that was where I developed this whole thing about Pan-Africanism and freedom from. That was where my passion started from.
On whether he should be referred to as a historian or pan-Africanist, he said, “I would say I’m a Pan-Africanist. I’ve always been a Pan-Africanist. I’ve always dressed like this.”
When asked about his relationship with President Tinubu with regard to the exhibition, Prest said, “Well, that is the most important question, I would say, because Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the true revolutionary. He is doing revolutionary things, things that have not been done since independence. One that particularly affects me is the Nigerian Riviera that the president has taken up. Let’s put it this way: initially, Okotiebor wanted to do this, that Lagos to Calabar Coastal Highway. Because of that coastal highway there are conspiracy theories that say he was killed because of that coastal highway.
“Those conspiracy theories also know that if you build that road, you have West Africa’s Riviera. It will top anywhere in the world. It will be the best. It will create massive employment. To me, the Lagos to Calabar coastal highway is the eighth wonder of the world, as far as I’m concerned. And our revolutionary president has done it in a way that… if he had not done it the way he’s doing it right now, 10 years from now, we’re still talking about EIA and all kinds of things happening. His approach to things is amazing. I mean, it’s the communist way of attacking things. One landmark must give way to 1,000 landmarks.
“ That is how things happen in the world. One landmark cannot hold 1,000 landmarks. Then, we talk about things like local government autonomy, where some local governments that were getting N50 million a month before are now getting billions. Someone like me wants to run for local government chairman now because I know that when the funds come, I’ll be able to do things to elevate the livelihood of my people.
“So, Mr. President has taken governance to the roots, back to the people. He has given it back to us unlike before. Mr. President is the only one who from the beginning wanted to be president. He knew what he wanted to do and he has taken the bull by the horn with dynamic leadership.”
On how he would achieve the 44 million Pan-African revolutionary volunteers for Tinubu, the electoral value of the 44 million and what he wants to accomplish with them, Prest said, “Well, support for the President.”
On when, he said, “Continuously, forever. Pan-Africanism. You see, we are saying that this whole attack against our leadership all the time is because of our markets. It’s because they want to control our markets. If you go into this shop (Silverbird Galleria) right now, you will see that 99 % of the things there are imported. Everything that we use is imported into Nigeria. So, we are economic slaves. My great desire is for us to begin to know ourselves and start to get ourselves worth.
: This whole thing is about who we were, about our civilization, how grandiose we were. This whole thing is about the nine DNA series that show that we are the most advanced human species on earth. You see, we have our pineal gland, our pineal gland works. You know the black man has his pineal gland. You know we have four brains. You have the stomach brain, the front brain, the back brain, and the pineal gland, the one which is also called the third eye. So, the black man, in fact, is a West African with nine DNA series. The Asians have seven DNA series.
“ The Europeans have six DNA series. Chimpanzees have three DNA series. So we want to begin to educate people on things like, if you look behind us, you will see that Cecil Rhodes is there. Cecil Rhodes is the famous guy from the Rhodes Scholar. Cecil Rhodes wanted to clear Africa from the Cape to Cairo. He did it, and it was called the hammering, where he used the Gatling gun to kill. He killed millions. It was reported that Cecil Rhodes probably killed anywhere from 40 million to 100 million black people. But nobody talks about that.
“You are talking about Hitler. You see and then until recently, I’m sure you’ve been seeing how they’ve been removing Cecil Rhodes statues from Oxford universities all over the world. Now, our people do not know, the primary school child or the secondary school child does not know about things like this. If you look over there, we’re talking about things like the Enuma Elise, the Epic of Gilgamesh (creation). We’re talking about the Redo, creation, the Garden of Eden where human beings were created by the Anunnakis.”
On how he would enlist these 44 million Pan-Africanists for this revolution, Prest said, “ It’s a whole process. We’re going round the country. We’re going to all the 774 local governments. We’re taking this educational exhibition to the 774 local governments. We’re going to all the markets in Abuja. We’re going to all the primary schools and secondary schools in Abuja. We’re going to have buses. We’re going to have mobile exhibition tents.
“Nigerians need to begin to understand that we come from a superior race. We need to understand that this country is the richest in the world. A country that has over 1,000 freshwater rivers. Some countries don’t have freshwater rivers. A big country like South Africa doesn’t have one freshwater river. This land is the land of milk and honey. We need to begin to know that this land is the land of milk and honey. I have been around the world many times. I can tell you for free that Nigeria is the richest country in the world, without a doubt. So Nigerians need to begin to know that this is the richest place in the world.%
When asked how he thinks the President can promote this art he is doing, he said, “ No, the president is working. For the first time in Nigeria, there is evidence of government everywhere. You can see dynamism everywhere. So they are working. They’re going to get round to this one. We also will push them and tell them. Look, they can’t think of everything in one second. But in eight years, I can assure you that Nigeria will be the greatest country in the world after Asiwaju’s two term tenure of eight years.”
On whether the project for Mr. President to rerun to office in 2027 was true, he said, “ No, no, no, there is nothing like that. You can see there’s no 2027 here. There’s no 2027. It’s a Pan-Africanist movement.”
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