<P> The Ibadan School dominated the academic study of Nigerian history until the 1970s . It arose at the University of Ibadan in the 1950s and remained dominant until the 1970s . The University of Ibadan was the first university to open in Nigeria, and its scholars set up the history departments at most of Nigeria's other universities, spreading the Ibadan historiography . Its scholars also wrote the textbooks that were used at all levels of the Nigerian education system for many years . The school's output appears in the "Ibadan History Series ." </P> <P> The leading scholars of the Ibadan School include Saburi Biobaku, Kenneth Dike, J.F.A. Ajayi, Adiele Afigbo, E.A. Ayandele, O. Ikime and Tekena Tamuno . Foreign scholars often associated with the school include Michael Crowder, Abdullahi Amith, J.B. Webster, R.J. Gavin, Robert Smith, and John D. Omer - Cooper . The school was characterized by its overt Nigerian nationalism and it was geared towards forging a Nigerian identity through publicizing the glories of pre-colonial history . The school was quite traditional in its subject matter, being largely confined to the political history that colleagues in Europe and North America were then rejecting . It was very modern, however, in the sources used . Much use was made of oral history and throughout the school took a strongly interdisciplinary approach to gathering information . This was especially true after the founding of the Institute for African Studies that brought together experts from many disciplines . </P> <P> The Ibadan School began to decline in importance the 1970s . The Nigerian Civil War led some to question whether Nigeria was in fact a unified nation with a national history . At the same time rival schools developed . At Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria, the Islamic Legitimist school arose that rejected Western models in favour of the scholarly tradition of the Sokoto Caliphate and the Islamic world . From other parts of Africa the Neo-Marxist school arrived and gained a number of supporters . Social, economic, and cultural history also began to grow in prominence . </P> <P> In the 1980s Nigerian scholarship in general began to decline, and the Ibadan School was much affected . The military rulers looked upon the universities with deep suspicion and they were poorly funded . Many top minds were co-opted with plum jobs in the administration and left academia . Others left the country entirely for jobs at universities in the West . The economic collapse of the 1980s also greatly hurt the scholarly community, especially the sharp devaluation of the Nigerian currency . This made inviting foreign scholars, subscribing to journals, and attending conferences vastly more expensive . Many of the domestic journals, including the Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, faltered and were only published rarely, if at all . </P>

Critically discuss the historical origin of the country nigeria