As our country reels under the weight of insecurity across the land, a potentially dangerous development reared its ugly head in Ilorin, Kwara State, recently when Christians and Muslim faithfuls hauled stones at each other in a conflict over access to some secondary schools in the state.
Matters came to a crisis point as Christians attempted to enforce their objection to the state government’s approval of the wearing of hijab by willing female Muslim students to the schools originally built by Christian missions. The schools which include C & S College, Sabo Oke; St. Anthony Secondary School, Ofa Road; ECWA School, Oja Iya; Surulere Baptist Secondary School and Bishop Smith Secondary School, Agba Dam; CAC Secondary School, Asa Dam Road; St Barnabas Secondary School, Sabo Oke; St John School, Maraba; St William’s Secondary School, Taiwo Isale and St James Secondary School, Maraba, have been subjects of litigation with their original owners pushing for total ownership and control once again after losing them to the state government about 47 years ago.
The state government, in February this year, had shut down the schools to forestall violent clashes between Christian and Muslim groups following the controversy that trailed its policy to allow willing female Muslim students wear hijab in public schools in the state. However, the government ordered the reopening of the schools about a month later to enable the students register for the WAEC examination even though the underlying issues were yet to be resolved.
Reacting to the development, a human rights lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa condemned the Kwara State Government for allegedly forcing use of hijabs in missionary schools in the state, arguing that Nigeria, being a secular nation, it was unlawful for states to adopt any specific religion for their residents. According to Adegboruwa, “These churches exist all over Nigeria, in Kwara State in particular, have since confirmed that Kwara is neither a Christian nor a Muslim State, for the government of that State to seek to take up arms in favour of or against any particular religion. In any case, Section 10 of the Constitution clearly prohibits any state in Nigeria from adopting any particular religion as state religion”.
While the spokesman of the state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Shina Ibiyeye, maintained that the issue of hijab had not been raised at any level of the litigations over the battle for the return of these schools to their owners, the President of Kwara Baptist Conference, Rev. Victor Dada, insisted that the government took a wrong decision by its blanket approval of wearing hijab for female pupils in mission schools.
Still weighing in on the matter, the national body of CAN, speaking through its General Secretary, Joseph Daramola said Governor Abdul Rahman Abdul Rasaq should be “held responsible if the crisis over hijab wearing in schools degenerates”, adding that “it was Abdul Rasaq’s pronouncement on hijab in violation of the court directive on the matter to maintain status quo until the matter is finally resolved by the court that led to this trouble” as “the state government ordered the reopening of the closed schools without resolving the crisis”.
However, the Kwara State Government said, “Arguments over the years that these schools still belong to either Muslim or Christian Missionaries have been flatly rejected by the court. So, the government totally rejects the claims some organisations are still laying to these schools because such claims are not known to the law. That some of these schools retain the names of their founding organizations is purely honorary and in memory of their Contributions to education”.
The government insists that “the law today is that willing Muslim school girls cannot be stopped from wearing hijab in public schools. Anything to the contrary will be in violent contravention of provisions of Section 38 of the constitution; adding that “it is important to clarify that the government is not imposing the hijab. It is not mandatory for all school girls to wear hijab. Rather, the state government approves hijab for any Muslim school girl who wishes to wear it”.
It is disturbing, not only that Nigerians are fighting over what and what not to wear to school in the face of all the problems encumbering our educational sector, but also that the country cannot afford a full scale religious conflict to the already overwhelming security situation our nation is going through. Kwara State and the religious organisations in the state need to demonstrate caution, exercise restraint and approach this issue with maturity, discipline and a sense of responsibility to de-escalate the tension already being generated.
Evidently, the schools in the middle of the crisis were founded by the missions but they are today funded and run by the government as state-owned schools having been taken over by the authorities several decades ago, even though their names were not changed. What is also manifest is that the missions who owned the schools are in court to retrieve their property as the church leaders and their Board of Trustees are said to be praying the Supreme Court to return these schools to their owners.
The Tide believes that the way to go is for all parties, including the Kwara State Government, to hold their peace until the final verdict of the apex court of the land is delivered and the ownership tussle of the disputed schools is determined. There is no doubt that except handled with utmost tact, the hijab crisis in Kwara State has the potential to ignite a religious conflict that could engulf their entire country. A situation that would give religious fundamentalists an excuse to continue the nefarious act of destabilising the nation must be averted at all cost by all well-meaning citizens, not least of all the Christian and Muslim groups in the State and the state government.