The Yusufu Bala Usman Institute is commemorating the 15th Memorial Anniversary of Bala Usman, one of Nigeria’s notable historians and a committed patriot by publishing three new editions of his books. These include ‘For the Liberation of Nigeria’, ‘Nigeria Against the IMF: The Home Market Strategy’, and ‘The Manipulation of Religion in Nigeria, 1977-1987’.
This was made known in a release signed by Norma Perchonok, who is Director, Bala Usman Institute. The ideas contained in the book are described as “even more relevant today than when they were first written, and they comprise an invaluable legacy for present and future generations.”
‘For the Liberation of Nigeria’ was first published in 1978 and originally sold over 10,000 copies. It contains 30 essays and lectures that Dr. Usman delivered between 1969 to 1978. They cover topics such as ‘some fundamental problems of contemporary Nigeria’; ‘the direction of Nigeria: structure, ideology and the constitution’; ‘Nigeria’s African policy; Nigerian universities and intellectual self-reliance’, and ‘the struggle in the South: Angola, Mozambique and the future’.
The new edition of this work has been enhanced by a foreword written by Dr. Olusegun Osoba, the Chairman of the Yusufu Bala Usman Institute. He is one of Dr. Usman’s oldest and closest friends and collaborators.
The second book, ‘Nigeria Against the IMF: The Home Market Strategy’, (with a new foreword by Mike Kwanashie, Professor of Economics at Ahmadu Bello University and former Vice Chancellor of Veritas University, Abuja) comprises essays on the subject of the Nigerian economy, such as understanding and resolving the current economic crisis; the structure of the Nigerian economy and the real meaning of structural adjustment; what exactly is the problem? For whom is the solution? among others.
‘The Manipulation of Religion In Nigeria, 1977-1987’ (with a foreword by Professor Usman A. Tar, who is one of the Directors of the Yusufu Bala Usman Institute), first published in 1987 broke new ground in its examination of how religion is manipulated to serve the interests of a class of people who use it to obscure and cover up their real purpose of dividing the country and protecting their material interest at the expense of the generality of the Nigerian people.
Usman was an academic and historian whose scholarship shaped Nigerian historiography. He was the founder of the Centre for Democratic Development, Research and Training at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He died in 2005.
