CRK: To Be Or Not To Be

Knowing how sensitive religious issues are, one is always careful and not eager to comment on them. History is replete with numerous avoidable crises in various parts of the country orchestrated by religion.
Even among families and blood relatives, matters pertaining  to religion are known to have caused irredeemable differences as everyone lays claim to the superiority of his or her religion.
Fortunately, the Nigerian Constitution provides for freedom of worship. Section 38 (1) of the 1999 Constitution states: “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom (either alone or in community with others, and in public or in private) to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.
“(2) No person attending any place of education shall be required to receive religious instruction or to take part in or attend any religious ceremony or observance if such instruction ceremony or observance relates to a religion other than his own, or religion not approved by his parent or guardian.
“(3) No religious community or denomination shall be prevented from providing religious instruction for pupils of that community or denomination in any place of education maintained wholly by that community or denomination”.
Every Nigerian, therefore, has the right to worship God the way he deems fit and anything on the contrary could be regarded as infringement on the person’s constitutional right. No section of the Nigerian Constitution places any religion above others, or makes one religion superior to others.
It is against this background that one considers the allegation that the Federal Government has removed Christian Religious Knowledge (CRK) as a distinct subject from the primary and secondary schools curriculum, while Islamic Religious Studies (IRS) is given prominence, as a very disturbing matter which must be tackled urgently before it snowballs into crisis.
Although the Federal Government, through  the National Education and Research Development Council(NERDC) had expectedly denied the allegation, describing it as speculative, false and unfounded,  there are indices that suggest otherwise.
For instance,during a recent meeting of  Christian Graduates Fellowship(NCGF), representatives of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Executive Secretary and Directors of NERDC on the contentious issue, obvious lapses in the current school curriculum were observed which, among other things, included making religious studies compulsory without adequate provision of teachers in those subjects.
This implies that a Christian student in the core north will be forced to take IRS, just as a Muslim student in the Christian dominated areas like the South East and South South will be forced to take CRK. A move quite contrary to the provisions of the Constitution.
Again, in the last Junior WAEC examination, reports had it that CRK appeared only as questions in one of the subjects and not as CRK  exam paper, just as there are allegations that Arabic Studies is being imposed on christian students in secondary schools.
This, no doubt, prompted the recent outcry by some top christian  leaders,  who rejected the imposition, describing the policy as a means of forceful religious indoctrination and urged all christian students to boycott the “compulsory” Arabic classes.
The big question then is: why change the curriculum and  create avoidable controversies in the country? Why do we make a policy that will advertently promote a  particular religion at the expense of another? Whether we believe it or not, any subject not studied in primary and secondary schools is already on the way to extinction as it cannot be studied in tertiary institutions.
It is, therefore, advisable that NERDC, the Federal Ministry of Education and all those responsible for  the alteration  of the school curriculum should retrace their steps before the country is plunged into another religious crisis. The country already has a myriad of problems  ranging from security to economic and political  and cannot afford to add yet another one to the list.
The Federal Government should heed the call of christian leaders and other well meaning Nigerians for the immediate reversal of the revised basic education curriculum. CRS should stand on its own as a separate subject as it had always been, instead of making it part of Religion and Natural Values or whatever they call the subject.
Let us not toy with the delicate peace and unity of the nation through divisive policies and actions.

Calista Ezeaku