It’s no longer news that Notre-Dame of Paris, the Catholic Church was caught up in fire on 15th April, 2019. The fire destroyed the cathedral’s attic and most of the roof, violet-le-Duc’s 19th century spire and some of the rib vaulting. The Cathedral is one of the most recognised symbol of France. You can now understand why French Billionaires and companies are competing among themselves to give the highest donation for the rebuilding of the cathedral. On the day of the fire, you could also see the horror on the face of Parisians as the spire fell down due to the burning flames. To them, it was heart breaking. Some Parisians have described the feeling as loosing someone close to them.


While I wholeheartedly sympathise with France and Europe, I could not help but think about Nigeria. Even when I wanted to escape from the thought, it kept coming back. You see, in 2015, I was working on an educational project where we assess the literacy and numeracy skills of Nigerian children between the ages of 5 – 15. We were to assess children both in school and out of school. In preparing the assessments, teachers and educators alike were tasked to come up with a social studies question – any symbol/icon that represented Nigeria. The aim of this question was to test the social awareness of all children. It would also be an indicator of whether Nigerian children were aware of their social environment even without going to school. Lo and behold, we couldn’t come up with one single symbol that represented all parts of Nigeria except political figures – it was either the current president or past presidents. What this means is that only politics unites us as a country! We thought about Football as a sport but most iconic figures came from one region. We didn’t want to be accused of bias since the assessment was going to be a national assessment not a regional one. There were no National artistes, monuments, philosophers, Authors, Poets, buildings etc. that we could describe as truly “Nigerian”. Each one of them had a regional, religious or ethnic connotation.



Wow! Isn’t this dangerous? Even as I write this, I am trying to think of one personality I could say is truly national. Sadly, even the Nigerian president can’t be said to be national given his actions and antecedents. Is there a Nigerian symbol that if it goes up in flames today, everyone would be so gutted and become moved to save it the way France and Europe have done? Is there any symbol that is so personal to Nigerians that we want to protect at all cost? For me, it is deeply troubling because it shows that Nigeria is truly a geographical expression like many would say. We need to build the nation and I use the word “nation” deliberately. We need to come up with something aside politics that unites every Nigerian, that children in rural and hard to reach areas would be able to recognise and identify with. Something we can all defend without thinking of religion or ethnicity. We need something to call Nigeria’s own.

If you think there is one, I welcome your suggestion.


https://desertbloomadvisory.com/2019/04/23/what-is-nigerias-notre-damethrough-the-eyes-of-ides-ofune/

The only one be have is corruption

Nairaland mod can never push educational content to front page, they rather have bress and snakes.

Tufiakwa

Our Notre Dame?


- The Super Eagles

- The Super Falcons

- Our music, sporting, film, and literary legends such as:

Fela Kuti
Rashidi Yekini
Jay Jay Okocha
Nwankwo Kanu
Ahmed Musa
Finidi George
Daniel Amokachi
Sunday Oliseh
Wole Soyinka
Chinua Achebe
Davido
Wizkid
PSquare
Genevieve Nnaji
Omotola Jalade Ekeinde
Peter Edochie
Olu Jacobs
ing Sunny Ade
Ebenezer Obey
Chief Osita Osadebey
Sonny Okosun
Onyeka Onwenu

Every single one of these individuals is loved by ALL Nigerians, regardless of background or ethnicity.

We can't really call on our ancient architecture because they were torn down by the British and Arab invaders into our territory, a vivid example being the destruction of Benin City by the British in 1897, who looted and burned down the city and its ancient, magnificent palace and other edifices.

Notre-Dame was important because french government and the french place value on it and respected as a national monument. Nigerian Notre-Dame though not maintained are much but not limited to a few in Lagos which include:
Cathedral at cms,
Tafawa Balewa Square,
National Art Theatre Iganmu
Nitel House
Ikoyi link bridge etc
These are among the few that can serve as a national monument and unesco world cultural centres