The Osun school uniform palaver

THE commotion caused at the Baptist High School, Iwo, Osun State, the other day, when students turned up in school in a motley of religious attire, is a dangerous recipe for violence and political instability, if it is not immediately contained. Apart from being a test of the egalitarian temperament of Governor Rauf Aregbesola, a man so notably religious, it is also a social barometre of the tolerance level of the people of Osun State, as well as a determinant of the stakes religion has in the political scheme of the South-West preparatory to 2015.
   Reports indicated that students came to school in attires depicting their religious affiliation. They were also alleged to have formed different assembly lines, and simultaneously rendered songs and prayers corresponding to the liturgies of their faiths. While it is yet to be ascertained which adult influence instigated this crisis, what is clear is that, by this act, the students defied the state government’s directive on common uniform specification for all secondary schools.
  Surely, Governor Aregbesola has never minced words about the height he wants his effervescent political idealism to take his government to. A fervent Muslim, who greatly admires the egalitarian structure of socialism, Aregbesola desires to turn Osun State into the cultural haven and socio-economic hub of the Yoruba, if not the entire country.
  The starting point for him as it is with other passionate leaders seems to be education; which probably explains his effort to radically transform the educational sector of his state by overhauling schools and providing infrastructure. However, as idealistic as his proposal is, it was a grave error on the part of his government, in the first place, to merge religious schools; the reason being that the government seemed not to have foreseen the consequences of such an endeavour, especially the uniform crisis that is now playing itself out.
 Beyond the purpose of identity, the school uniform suggests discipline and conformity. By its use, students learn the values of loyalty, comradeship and esprit de corps amongst those with whom the school attire is identified. Thus, as the term suggests, the school uniform is a symbol of uniformity. Any other attire, religious or otherwise, cannot in any way serve this purpose, especially as the basis for association in a public school setting does not rest on any religious affiliation.
   Furthermore, to insist that religious attires be given consideration in the dress codes of state and public institutions is an argument towards absurdity. What it means is that any form of religious paraphernalia could be incorporated into any kind of uniform. In other words, the army, the police and other law enforcement agencies, as well as state institutions identified by a uniform, could alter their dress code to reflect their faith. This is absurd!

  The government and people of Osun State must bear in mind that the grundnorm of state conduct in Nigeria is secularity, in the most harmless sense of the term. Devoid of its religious connotation, secularity of the state entails neutrality on matters of personal differences relative to state affairs. Consequently, the state government should not conduct itself in a way that transgresses this neutrality of the state by paying such close attention to religion. The government should enforce what it started when it came up with a uniform specification for all secondary schools.
   Moreover, it must also be inculcated into citizens that the tolerant society, which the government says it desires for its people, is built on mutual respect of each other’s religion. Before now the level of cohabitation amongst the adherents of the three main religions of Christianity, Islam and traditional African faith in Osun State has been cordial and peaceful. Despite the fact that Osun State is the capital of the Yoruba traditional religion, Christianity and Islam sit well in the heart and mind of its people and are firmly rooted in their consciousness. There must be no place for those who desire to use religion for political purposes in the state. The consequences of such a dangerous trend are too dire to contemplate.
   On this fact, the government of Osun State should not display any form of tacit acquiescence by being silent on the crisis. The government must call the pupils to order and, working through the police and security agencies, expose the unseen hands, whether within the government or outside it, who are fanning the embers of religious bigotry in the state. Conscious of this situation, the governor should not only portray himself in stately neutrality, but be seen to be doing so.
   The ugly scenario played out in Baptist High School, Iwo, shows that children have unknowingly become the helpless puppets of the intemperance of some adult community in Osun State. This is a shame! Children, who at once were feted as the beneficiaries of an ambitious legacy, were at the same time being initiated into the ignoble class of social miscreants.
   Although people generally have a right to chose what to wear in the larger society, yet at the level of institutions including schools, there have always been, and should remain a uniformity in dressing. And schools in Osun State should not be an exception