Libation Practices of Traditional Governance in Nigeria and the Challenges of Human Development: An Agenda for Humanistic Research

The development of a nation hangs on her ability to recognise her needs and to pursue it educationally African nations have come a long way educationally, especially when compared to the traditional life pattern of early Africans. This paper verifies the level that Nigerian Higher Institutions address her values in its developmental strides. The paper considers one of the oral values that African is known for Libation is recognised as an essential form of Africa’s oral literature as it is expressed in her libation texts performances. poetry. It permeates all aspects of life of Africans from birth to death. This paper assesses the provisions of Nigerian University system as relates to the encouragement of this important aspect of African life pattern. This paper utilizes oral interview method of data collection in some select Nigerian Universities to ascertain the position of this paper. Interviews were also with some custodians of traditional values to ascertain their views on the need to encourage the survival of libation performances in traditional governance. This paper considers the Semiotic theory as it analysis tool while it also considers some aspects of contextual theory. It concludes that the rate of encouragement of this concept in our educational pursuit is very low, owing to low interest indication. The paper confirms that our higher educational curricula cater for other areas of development, but definitely not the “fetish” branded native religious (libation) practices which in turn translates low patronage of it in today’s traditional practices.

Keywords: Libation Practices Human Development Higher Education Development and Traditional Governance

Author

• Usoro, Rebecca Okon
  Department of English,
  University of Uyo. Uyo
  Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria