Dismissing the Social Sciences: How not to talk as Education Minister, by Kabiru Danladi Lawanti In a nation struggling with structural dysfunctions, policy somersaults, and deepening social fractures - insecurity, armed banditry, Boko Haram, phone snatchers and what have you , it is disheartening—though no longer surprising—that many Nigerian leaders have developed a casual contempt for the social sciences. They are fond of dismissing disciplines like sociology, political science, anthropology, and philosophy as intellectually ornamental or developmentally irrelevant. On Wednesday last week, the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, was...