Education
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Unless something is done soon, religious crisis appears imminent in Osun State public schools over the controversy generated by the State’s High Court ruling that Muslim female students can wear hijab to public schools started by Christian missionaries
| By Anayo Ezugwu | Jun 27, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT |
THE decision of the Osun State High Court to legalise the use of hijab by female Muslim pupils in public primary and secondary schools in the state, is causing serious tension in the state. The Christian Association of Nigeria in the State has also urged students to also go to school with their various church garments. Some students of Baptist High School, Adeleke, Iwo, obeyed CAN instructions by donning such church garments to school on Tuesday, June 14. The appearance of students of the school in their different church vestments caused confusion in the school as other students who were in their school uniform hailed them.
However, this situation could lead to a total breakdown of law and order if the situation is not well handled. The new attire by students indicates that Christians and Muslims in the state are poised for serious showdown over the use of hijab by female Muslim students in public schools. Christian leaders agreed that Christian students should begin to wear their garments such as those for Boys Brigade, ushers, Girls Guide, choristers, band boys, white garments and others. While their Muslim counterparts think otherwise.
The CAN has insisted that Christian pupils will continue to wear church garments and other apparels to public schools if Muslim students continued wearing hijab. Moses Ogundeji, vice chairman of CAN in the state, said this in an interview with journalists at the venue of the prayer meeting of the association in Osogbo on Wednesday, June 15.
Reacting to the threat by the governor to expel students who disobey school orders, Ogundeji said: “The governor should be ready to expel all students in the state. He should be ready to expel those wearing hijab because hijab was never part of the school uniform. If the governor is fighting for the right of the Muslims, we will also fight for the right of the Christians.”
On his part, Joseph Olaide, secretary of CAN, said while addressing the gathering that Christian students could not be stopped from wearing church garments. He said the CAN should be notified if security men arrested any of the pupils, saying the leadership would take the case up.
Elisha Ogundiya, chairman CAN in the state, said he was invited by the Department of State Services, DSS, in the state over the looming crisis in public schools following a court verdict on the use of hijab in public schools. “I was invited by the SSS director and I told him that we are peace loving people. We are not at war with anybody but we will direct our children to start wearing choir robes and any church garment they like to schools if the state government decides to implement the judgment that Muslim children are free to wear hijab to schools founded by Christian missionaries. If wearing hijab is their right, then wearing of choir robes to schools is the right of our children as well. It is very simple. We are not fighting with anybody on this.”
Reacting, the State Muslim Community had recently urged the Osun State chapter of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, not to throw the state into religious crisis but to respect the judgment of the State High Court on the issue. Mustapha Olawuyi, vice president, Osun State Muslim Community, said it behoves every responsible individual to abide by judgement of court and appealed to Osun CAN to shun lawlessness in the best interest of justice and peace.
The Osun State High Court had on Friday, June 3, ruled that Muslim female students in public primary and secondary schools in the state are now free to wear Hijab in their schools. Delivering judgment in a case filed by the Osun State Muslim Community against the state government, Justice Jide Falola presiding judge, held that wearing Hijab was part of the fundamental rights of Muslims’ female pupils.
The Osun State Muslim Community had dragged the state government to the court, seeking an order of the court to allow Muslim female students use hijab in public schools. Joined in the suit are the state commissioner for education, attorney general and commissioner for justice while the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, its chairman and others voluntarily joined as respondents.
But Osun CAN, however, faulted the judgement and vowed to appeal the matter in the higher court. CAN also threatened that it would direct Christian students across the state to wear church garments to schools to propagate their faith if Osun State government implement the judgement of Justice Falola.
Agreeing, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Osun State chapter, has said that Nigerians should hold Governor Rauf Aregbesola responsible, if more damage is done to the state’s education system through the brewing crisis over wearing of hijab in public schools by female Muslim students. The party in a statement issued in Osogbo by Diran Odeyemi, its spokesperson, said Muslims and Christians in Osun State have coexisted long before now without crisis. He blamed the rising tension on Governor Aregbesola, whom he accused of grand plan to destabilise the state for some political reasons.
But Felix Awofisayo, chairman, State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, in his reaction on the development said the state government would abide by the judgement of the court. He noted that all the public schools belonged to the state government and that the judgement was bidden on all of them.
On his reaction, Governor Aregbesola has warned that any student found disobeying school rules and regulations risk expulsion. The governor while commissioning the ultra-modern St Michael’s RCM Government Middle School, Ibokun, said all aggrieved parties in the recent court judgement over Hijab should channel their grievances according to the rule of law and not resorts to self help.
He distanced his administration from the court judgement that allowed female Muslim students to wear hijab to school, saying the judiciary is an independent arm of government, the decisions of which are not subject to any influence by other arms of government. “It is funny for some people to insinuate that government has a hand in the judgement. The government is a democracy, not a theocracy. Any student found disobeying school rule and regulation risk expulsion from our schools.
“The government therefore cannot support or be seen to be supporting a particular religion. I believe also that parents and society should complement the government in shaping the minds of the pupils to be receptive to knowledge and godly character formation; to be sensitive to the need of others, the plurality of our society and the imperative of mutual toleration. They should also be brought up to be team players, even when in a competitive environment. It amounts to subversion of the educational needs of a child to be drawn into and used for political purposes,” he said.
But the Youth Wing of Christian Association of Nigeria, Osun State, YOWICAN-OS, has explained that it was not against wearing of hijab in Osun public schools but not in Christian faith-based schools as being insinuated. The group insisted that Christians should not go back on wearing of garments to schools.
The group said the judgment of Justice Falola that legitimises wearing of hijab in public schools was in direct opposition to the mutual agreement leaders of National Inter-Religious Council, NIREC, Osun State chapter, reached on the issue.
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