Politicising Osun school reclassification 

Erasmus Ikhide, a public affairs analyst, appeals to those opposed to the reclassification of schools by the Government of the State of Osun on religious grounds to reconsider their stand in view of the numerous benefits of the reforms…’


It’s not surprising that a section of the Christian faith are using everything religion to blacklist Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s modest educational reform in the State of Osun. The Christians, spearheaded by Osun Baptist Conference  are protesting the government’s reclassification of school system in the State. The fact remains that Baptist Conference is feigning ignorance of the fact of actual educational development in the state and consciously playing politics with the education of the children in the state.
In order to register their displeasure with the ‘merger’ of school in the state, the protesters were armed with holy bibles and hymnbooks of various sizes like spiritual warriors on a warpath with Satan. They also held banners and placards to advertise the reasons for their mission to wrestle with government and its agents, as against the biblical commands of wrestling against principalities and powers in high places and not against flesh and blood. The fear that the Baptist heritage would be obliterated if the school reclassification sails through and would grant the rights to Muslim students to wear hijab in a school founded by the Christian missionaries is at the heart of it.
Incidentally, the Muslims are not left out of this protests, however. The Muslim communities also protested against the policy. Going by the media reports, they have protested in Iwo, Imesi-Ile and some other places. They are only not as loud as their Christian counterparts. Even before now, under Prince Olagusoye Oyinlola’s administration, they have gone a step further by instituting an action in a court of law against the government with the intention of having their kids wear hijab as part of their school uniform and the case in still at the High Court to date.
The vigour with which the recent protest was executed suggests that politics has taken a better part of their religious or spiritual inquisition. They have suddenly forgotten that Governor Aregbesola, whom they called an Islamic fundamentalist, donated millions of naira to Baptist Conference during its 2013 convention in the State of Osun; gave N10 million to Osun CAN and provided N35 million for the burial rites of late Prophet Abraham Obadare, the former General Overseer of WOSEM. It’s unlikely that the Baptist Convention would realise that the money was spent from the taxes of the hardworking people of the state.
Surprisingly, the Baptist Conference in the State of Osun has carried on as if its own Christian faith is beyond humanity. What is the essence of love we preach in the Churches and Mosques daily if Christians and Muslims at their formative stage in life cannot cohabit under the same class room? Why were there no protests when a Christian Governor, Prince Olagusoye Oyinlola was in the saddle? Why would any person or institution protest against a laudable, innovative and commendable initiative such as school reform in Osun? How can we foster national unity and nationalism when Christian or Muslim parents forbid their kids to relate or intermingle freely with children of other faiths?
This is one of late President Nelson Mandela’s grouse with Nigeria where he said: “You know I am not very happy with Nigeria… Nigeria stood by us more than any other nation, but you let yourselves down… Now we hear that you cannot be president in Nigeria unless you are Muslim or Christian”. That is the level to which we have degenerated as a nation without crave for progressive and positive excellence amongst us even though those who have been ruling us since independence are either Christians or Muslims!
Even at that, there is the need to put things in proper perspective. A cursory look at the grievances of Baptist Convention would suffice. On the one hand, Baptist Conference is laying claim to the ownership of the schools while it is resisting hijab-wearing Muslims as pupils at the Christian schools on another. In all claims, Baptist Conference is chasing shadows at best and at the same time parading crass ignorance at worst. The ownership of the missionary schools has been taken over by the government and all the entitlements paid to the owners since 1975.
Therefore, these schools are no more missions but public schools, and by inference, secular schools. It is just by sheer grace that their missionary names are still retained till date. This is an obvious fact with documents as prove. The Baptist Convention can itself attests to the fact that since the 1975 take-over of the schools by the government, over 100 schools have been built by the church and none of them is a single sex school.The second issue raised by the Baptist Conference is the forbidding of hijab-wearing Muslim students in the same school as Christian students. The Nigeria constitution espouses the discrimination against a fellow being on the basis of religion. And the constitution frowns at this. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), under Chapter 4, Section 38, Subsections (1) and (2), provides that “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief… No person attending any place of education shall be required to receive religious instruction or take part in any religious ceremony…other than his own, or religion not approved by his parent or guardian.” The Baptist Convention leadership in Nigeria owe it a duty to stick principally to the tenets and principles of the universal Baptist Convention of undiluted freedom in all human endeavours for which Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist Reverend fought tenaciously and died. To this end, I dare say all faiths must heed the admonition of Pope Francis if our quests for a just and equitable society is anything to go by. His timeless counsel falls pretty well into the present religious-political scenario in the State of Osun where religious leaders who ought to have been championing the cause of love, peace and unity are the ones propagating violence and promoting hatred. “All religions are true, because they are true in the heart of all those who believe in them”, Pope Francis said. This will hardly make any sense to the Baptist Conference since the gospel of salvation is foolishness to those that are perishing.
Instead of applauding the innovative way of implementing the country’s educational system of 6-3-3-4, with a sustainable concept of empowering the children beyond literacy to the level of practice in global education standard and self-empowerment, Governor Aregbesola is being vilified for his effort that has revamped the sector and lauded by UNESCO; the world body that sets education standards.
The school reclassification process is to automatically lead to changing of the known nomenclatures of Primary school, JSS 1-3, and SSS 1-3 to create Elementary, Middle and High schools without affecting 6-3-3-4 Nigerian educational system. The elementary school will take primary 1-4; the middle school will absorb primary 5-6 and JSS 1-3; while high school will have SSS 1-3. The elementary school absorbs the pupils in the age category of 6-10 years and they are now being fed free by the government. The structures that are built for this grade are cited within the neighbourhood and they are not only provided with the state of the art facilities but have each the capacity of 900 pupils at ago. Middle school which has the capacity of 900 to 1000 will have the age range of 10-14 years and it is cited within the maximum of 2-3 kilometres radius. This also will be supplied with standard facilities, far and above those in the elementary schools. The high school, however, is for those in the age range of 15-17 years and will have capacity of 3000 because it will be a large complex containing three schools, meaning each school will have capacity for 1000.
The high school will have staff quarters, school managers, boarding and modern sporting facilities etc. The pupils of this level are those being given free computer tablets known as Opon Imo. Nevertheless, all these schools will be provided with medical centres, standby power generating sets, instructional materials and customised exercised books.
However, the simple and major aims of the policy are to group together, in classes, the pupils of same age bracket with each class containing as fewer as possible for easy learning. The proliferation of mushroom schools will be a thing of the past with standard and well-equipped schools for all ages. As a result, the scarce resources of the government will not be over-stretched in an attempt at providing necessary teaching tools and aids for different categories of pupils. More importantly, the government will uplift the standard of public schools to an elegant standard fit for learning and teaching. These and many more are what the reclassification portends for the people of Osun.
Perhaps, the only offence committed by Aregbesola in this instance is that he has snatched the state’s rotten educational system from the jaws institutional collapse. But because we easily forget the past, we are less likely to appraise the parlous state he met the decayed Primary and Post-Primary education. The school system he inherited in 2010 was everything but education. The public schools then were P.T.A-run. It was the parents’ body that employed teachers for the schools, most of whom were secondary school graduates. They were paid seven thousand naira as salaries and called P.T.A-teachers. Parents provided chairs and tables for their children to use at schools.
Governor Aregbesola has cautioned repeatedly that religious tolerance is when a thousand flowers of religions can blossom together and this has happened in without any earthquake in the past for over a millennium amongst the Yoruba people. The sky is wide enough for the millions of birds to fly together without any clash; no wonder, there has never been a reported case of a religious clash in the State of Osun. Those who are agitating for, and aspiring to ignite religious war in the State of Osun are ignorant of the history of the Yoruba peaceful co-extence, irrespective of their religion. The people of Osun are resolute that they will overcome the attempt to rally religious bigots to truncate their aspiration for progressive and purposeful education for their children.