Osun State and the jihadist
Written by: Toyin Willoughby Muyi
“OUR
education policy is tailored towards making the Osun public school
system, produce the complete child, to become the complete youth and
grow up to become the complete citizen, empowered in learning and in
character, in the best tradition of the Yoruba Omoluabi. That way, they
would be equipped, culturally and academically, anywhere they find
themselves in the world, aside from becoming patriots, to take care of
their state and country that had earlier taken care of them.” This
statement, from Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the executive Governor of Osun
State, which he would rather call State of Osun, summarises the thinking
behind the state’s new educational policy – a policy aimed at repairing
human beings rather than merely repairing or building schools, as
others have done. The policy is the outcome of the communiqué
and observations of the Osun Education Summit, held in February 2011,
and chaired by Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka.
Unfortunately, this laudable project has recently taken on a religious hue and it is fanning the embers of a dangerous fire that, if care is not taken, may consume not only Osun, but the whole of the southwest, which has an age-long reputation for religious tolerance. It is only in Yoruba land that you will find a nuclear family of five where the father is a Muslim, the mother Catholic, the son Baptist, the daughter Pentecostal, another son or daughter a free-thinker and they all live in harmony and celebrating each other’s festivities without rancour.
The genesis of the problem in Osun can be traced to the wearing of the Hijab by Muslim female pupils on their uniforms to their new schools, founded by Christian missionaries as a result of the reclassification of schools under the new education policy, which has seen the merging of non-Christian schools with traditionally Christian schools. And the original owners of these schools like the Baptist and the Catholics have come up in arms against such mergers, insisting that they will not allow Hijab-wearing pupils in their schools. They have every right to protest.
However, the hilarious, yet ridiculous scenario that played itself out last Tuesday at the Baptist High School, Iwo calls for a re-think on the part of the initiators. It is combustible! Some pupils turned up in school in choir robes, white garments, Islamic garments and other unconventional dresses; while others came to school wearing costumes like masquerades. At the assembly ground, the pupils lined up along religious lines and it was pandemonium galore. A female pupil, who was dressed in a purple choir’s robe, led Christian students in gospel praises, while her Muslim counterpart dressed in the Hijab, hollered “Allau Akbar” from the same platform simultaneously. Ki lo de? Ki la gbe ki la ju?
Obviously, the protest has been hijacked by politicians masquerading as educational and religious purists. Who instigated the pupils to go to school in their funny regalia? Did they take the initiative by themselves? If this issue is not handled with the maturity it deserves, we may have more than the Central African Republic religious pogrom on our hands. And Boko Haram? That would be child’s play!
I am not a fan of Aregbesola’s, a man many have called a Boko Haram apologist and a Jihadist bent on Islamising the State of Osun. Again, I can boast of being as spirit-filled a Christian as they come. However, if wearing the Hijab will get all those food and fruit hawking girls, (who are sexually assaulted, and are saddled with unwanted pregnancies in the process) into schools where they would properly be moulded into “complete citizens, empowered in learning and in character”, so they could in turn mould future leaders of Nigeria, so be it. I must say, I am disappointed by the Chairman of the CAN, Osun State, Rev. Elisha Ogundiya’s “All the pupils are free to dress the way they like to school. It is their right.” Do two wrongs make a right?
Unfortunately, this laudable project has recently taken on a religious hue and it is fanning the embers of a dangerous fire that, if care is not taken, may consume not only Osun, but the whole of the southwest, which has an age-long reputation for religious tolerance. It is only in Yoruba land that you will find a nuclear family of five where the father is a Muslim, the mother Catholic, the son Baptist, the daughter Pentecostal, another son or daughter a free-thinker and they all live in harmony and celebrating each other’s festivities without rancour.
The genesis of the problem in Osun can be traced to the wearing of the Hijab by Muslim female pupils on their uniforms to their new schools, founded by Christian missionaries as a result of the reclassification of schools under the new education policy, which has seen the merging of non-Christian schools with traditionally Christian schools. And the original owners of these schools like the Baptist and the Catholics have come up in arms against such mergers, insisting that they will not allow Hijab-wearing pupils in their schools. They have every right to protest.
However, the hilarious, yet ridiculous scenario that played itself out last Tuesday at the Baptist High School, Iwo calls for a re-think on the part of the initiators. It is combustible! Some pupils turned up in school in choir robes, white garments, Islamic garments and other unconventional dresses; while others came to school wearing costumes like masquerades. At the assembly ground, the pupils lined up along religious lines and it was pandemonium galore. A female pupil, who was dressed in a purple choir’s robe, led Christian students in gospel praises, while her Muslim counterpart dressed in the Hijab, hollered “Allau Akbar” from the same platform simultaneously. Ki lo de? Ki la gbe ki la ju?
Obviously, the protest has been hijacked by politicians masquerading as educational and religious purists. Who instigated the pupils to go to school in their funny regalia? Did they take the initiative by themselves? If this issue is not handled with the maturity it deserves, we may have more than the Central African Republic religious pogrom on our hands. And Boko Haram? That would be child’s play!
I am not a fan of Aregbesola’s, a man many have called a Boko Haram apologist and a Jihadist bent on Islamising the State of Osun. Again, I can boast of being as spirit-filled a Christian as they come. However, if wearing the Hijab will get all those food and fruit hawking girls, (who are sexually assaulted, and are saddled with unwanted pregnancies in the process) into schools where they would properly be moulded into “complete citizens, empowered in learning and in character”, so they could in turn mould future leaders of Nigeria, so be it. I must say, I am disappointed by the Chairman of the CAN, Osun State, Rev. Elisha Ogundiya’s “All the pupils are free to dress the way they like to school. It is their right.” Do two wrongs make a right?
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