Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Professor AbdulGaniyu Ambali, in Ilorin yesterday painted the ugly picture of the beginning of insurgency in the North Eastern part of the country, which he said, sprang from wrong interpretation of religion.

The evidence of not taking cue from misinterpretation of religion, Ambali added, was the devious campaign that resulted in holocaust in the region. He said what the country proclaimed and purportedly practiced had brewed disaster. In his address at the 3rd Biennial National Conference of the Centre for Ilorin Studies, University of Ilorin, held at the institution's auditorium, Ambali noted that the nation had paid heavily from not learning from history.

The vice-chancellor maintained that the refusal to draw lesson from past happenings was undermining the nation's academic curriculum. Since the campaign embarked upon by Boko Haram insurgents under the guise of religion began years back, thousands of innocent people had been brutally maimed, raped and killed.

However, the Unilorin VC challenged the Federal Government to incorporate history and religious studies in the school curricula as compulsory subjects and courses for students. He said this would imbue sense of history among Nigerians and also assist them in knowing where they are all the time. Ambali identified history and religion as essential commodities in building a virile nation.

"I want to use this medium to enjoin the Federal Government to make the study of History and Religious Studies (of both Islam and Christianity) compulsory in our school system. We need to understand our past and know who we are at every point in time. "We need to always acknowledge our past heroes so that we would be in position to appreciate their sacrifices and values. Such knowledge will help us to overcome some of the contemporary challenges we are facing and live better together as a people.

"Now that both Islamic Studies and Christian Religious Studies are merged as components of an omnibus subject, Religion and National Values (RNV), the amount of time devoted to the study of the two subjects is drastically reduced.

"Given the centrality of religion in our day to day activities in Ilorin Emirate and Nigeria at large, not knowing what we proclaim and purportedly practice is a disaster. Our country has paid a high price for not learning from history, which is undermined in our school curriculum now; our country has paid dearly for the wrong knowledge and interpretation of religion as evident in the liberated communities of the North East.

"Therefore, I strongly believe that taking History and Religion seriously has implications for our peaceful and harmonious development as a multicultural society and there are ample examples in support of this position in Ilorin. In other words, History and Religious Studies are essential commodities in our task of nation building and we should make conscious efforts in that direction", Ambali.