Tag: UI

WHEN the management of the University of Ibadan International School shut down their college over the decision by some parents in the school to compel Muslim students to wear hijab, they gave two reasons for their prompt response. One was that the forceful parents bypassed due process that enjoined them to peacefully persuade the system, particularly the Parents/Teachers Association (PTA), to accommodate their demands. That was apparently not done. Second was that the forceful parents simply embarked on self-help by disruptively going to the school with hijabs and distributing the extras to willing Muslim students. To avoid further disruptions, the school was shut. And after a meeting of the relevant bodies in the school, a decision was taken to stick to prevailing dress code. Apart from the dissenters, those who took the decision comprised both Christian and Muslim parents who expressed their desire to avoid any religious undertones and overtones in a private school they reminded everyone must be kept away from religious politics.

The hijab controversy is fairly widespread, with sadly the formerly pacesetting and liberal Southwest becoming today the main theatre of heated discord. Lagos State, anxious to avoid anything suggestive of religion under any guise in public schools, had for years resisted the campaign by some Muslim parents to enforce the wearing of hijab. The activist parents, also careful to avoid self-help, took the matter to court where they received favourable judgements in both the High Court and Court of Appeal. The matter is before the Supreme Court. But before the apex court could rule, the state jumped the gun and authorised the wearing of what they described as smart hijab. In some qualified ways, it is victory for the parents and a loss for government.

A few things are wrong with the approach adopted by the affected parents over the UI school crisis. First, whether Nigerians believe or not, their country is susceptible to ethnic and religious suspicions and violence. More and more states are falling under the spell of religious intolerance, with a distinct possibility that the problem could one day spiral out of control into a conflagration. Given the destructive role religious suspicion and intolerance have played in some parts of Nigeria and other parts of the world in the past one or two decades, many had thought that Nigerian parents would sensibly come together to find the best ways of insulating their country from any form of religious upheaval. Whether in the Middle East or some states in Nigeria’s North, whole communities have become perennially disposed to religious violence and even segregation. Nobody who has witnessed religious violence in Nigeria or Lebanon can wish for a replay at his backdoor. But, sadly, some Nigerians, not to say many parents, do not seem to think that conscious and extra steps should be taken to foster harmony among Nigeria’s impressionable young.

Secondly,  as the UI case has shown, where on earth did Nigerians learn to force their way on others when they lose an argument? Unlike public schools, parents can easily take the option of withdrawing their children from private schools whose dress codes war against their preferences, whether social, cultural or religious. The aforesaid parents should have taken that option at the UI school. In the alternative, they should have intensified their lobby to get the school to amend their dress code. Failing that, they had an obligation to comply with extant school rules. Or what kind of lessons would cantankerous parents be teaching their children: to flout any rule or regulation they don’t agree with, impose themselves on the collective simply because they think they are right or justified?

The UI International School can stick to its guns for reasons that are uncontroversial. Lagos State is unfortunately helpless. After yielding in what they think is a little matter, there is no telling where this fateful step will take them. Next port of call may be the primary schools, and after that, only God knows where else. The Southwest, where these dress codes controversies are raging, used to be the bastion of liberalism in Nigeria, with some states boasting same-faith elected leaders in Government Houses. That reputation is all but in tatters, no thanks to those who insist on instituting differentiation among the region’s young children. It is doubtful whether paradise can be regained. Given the contemporary history of the world and the evils that convulse it, it is shocking that no lessons have been learnt, and no desire to build a secular and modern society untrammelled by intolerance and bigotry. Curses are like chickens, they will come home to roost sometime in the future. When they do, as they will inevitably, this generation of Nigerians should be held culpable for failing to see the future, and for more atrociously failing to recognise that it is not everything that is lawful that is expedient.