Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde has called for the revival of community-based values as a means to transform the contemporary society.
The governor, who made the call at the launch of a book, “Letters, Kingship and Social Mobility in Nigeria” held at the Trenchard Hall, University of Ibadan (U.I), underscored the importance of shared Yoruba kinship values and education as critical messages of the major letter writers in the book.
The book was authored by Professor Olufemi Vaughan, currently the Alfred Sargent Lee ’41 and Mary Ames Lee Professor of African Studies at Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA.
It was a trove of more than 3,000 letters compiled in a span of 80 years and received by the author from his late father, Abiodun Alfred Vaughan, in 2003.
Governor Makinde, who was the chairman of the occasion, called on Nigerians to engage important community-based values derived from the past to help change and transform contemporary conditions.
Makinde stressed the importance of keeping good records from the past to assist in understanding current social, political, and economic conditions.
He also urged Nigerians in the Diaspora to lend support to efforts at reviving community-based values in contributing to the development and progress of Nigerian society.
The governor promised to order many copies of the book, the teaching of History and Social Studies in public secondary schools and universities, as well as in all the local government areas in the state.
Also, Bolanle Awe, a renowned professor of Nigerian and Yoruba History, made a strong case for the usage of letters and other archival materials in historical writings.
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