I welcome you to my blog and another wonderful edition of the Hive Learners' featured post. People come and go, but those who made a great impact are always remembered, and sometimes statues are built in their memory, and sometimes buildings are named after them, sometimes even streets, just so their names and what they have done for their country are not forgotten at all. We all must have seen statues in towns or villages with an inscription of the person's name, and some have a little story of the person's heroic deeds or why there is a statue up in their memory.
We have so many people who even died before we were born, but somehow, whether you like history or not, you have been forced to either hear about them whether you like it or not or have been forced to read about them both in schools and at home based on their contributions to the country, state, or village or for one heroic deed or the other. Even if you are one that hates history or doesn't enjoy it, there is a way you keep hearing about an individual or see how buildings, houses, schools, or streets are named after an individual, and you are forced to carry out research about them.
A typical example of such a person is Chief Michael Okpara, an Abia State man in Nigeria who served as the premier of Eastern Nigeria way back in 1959. He died in 1984, but to date, his name is one of the most famous names in the eastern part of Nigeria. There is a statue in Enugu and Abia State in memory of him as a result of his contribution to the development of the eastern part of the country. He died long before many of us were born, but his name still rings a bell to this date. There are schools, both primary and secondary, and even a university named after him in Abia State. It takes less than 3 hours of being in Abia State before you hear the name Michael Okpara.
My answer to this is yes, once it is revealed that they are not who they must have painted themselves to be, it is wise and better to remove monuments and statues made in their memory because many will want to follow in their footsteps with the motivation that such a person was a terrible person who did nothing but evil, but they still have monuments, statues, and buildings named after them, and that way they will be encouraged to go ahead with any evil thought they must have harbored in their hearts. After all, if those before them are still remembered and were honored, why would their case be different?
So if monuments and statues are removed and the honor given before the discovery, then I think a lot of people will be forced to let go of any evil thought they must have harbored. Seeing the dishonor alone will cause a lot of people to want to do the right thing whether they like it or not.
