By Igboeli Arinze
I have been following events in Kwara State, where it much seems that a religious war is in the brew over the decision of the state government to introduce the wearing of hijabs by female students who choose to do so. This decision has sparked protests from both quarters of the religious divide, for the Christian section, the decision is again an attempt to continue the unfinished conquest of Uthman Dan Fodio and his commanders who initially mopped up Ilorin, which originally was a Yoruba vassal state and before tsetse fly and Yoruba warriors turned them back. They see such a policy as the continuation of Ahmadu Bello’s boast that he would one day dip the Koran in the Atlantic Ocean. Such fears and accusations have been fueled and refueled by the false belief that there is indeed a plan to forcefully Islamise Nigeria under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari and so when the policy was broached it was time for Nigeria’s Onward Christian Soldiers to pitch her tents against Islam’s perceived encroachment.
I for one have always frowned at the numerous entanglements religion seems to bring us into in this country or continent, for example, I am a Christian but I grew up with Muslims as friends and neighbors in Surulere Lagos. I witnessed families where the husband or father was a practicing Christian while the mother and a couple of her children were Muslims and vice versa. I never witnessed any recriminations for belonging to any of these faiths, I myself naturally enjoyed celebrating the Muslim holidays with my Muslim friends, while we shared our chicken with them during the Christmas festivals.
To dissect this issue properly, one must first agree that Nigeria is a Secular State as stated clearly in Section 38 (1) of the 1999 Constitution and frowns at the imposition of a religion on any person. Then in line with a number of conventions, such as Article
2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , our constitution agrees with the freedom of worship for its citizens and demands that no citizen be harassed because of his religious profession. Moving on, we must also establish the propriety of the schools in question. Are these schools missionary schools? Run and funded by the
remnants of the missionaries that set up such schools for the joint task of educating and the proselytizing of our dark souls or are they run by government as well as funded by them?
If we then agree that Nigeria is a secular state and that every citizen is free to worship whatever deity or a pantheon of deities, then one finds nothing wrong with the Hijab policy since it is not asked of non Muslims to wear such. I mean if a Muslim feels that she has a religious duty to adorn herself with a hijab then so be it, for as long as she does not infringe on the right of her counterpart students or on the school authorities.
Even if these schools in question are missionary schools, owned and operated by Christian missionaries of the strictest rectitude , it is still very wrong to deny an individual the right to practice his or her faith in a country that professes to being a secular nation, now as the case maybe these schools though were missionary in outlook or at its establishment are
presently been funded by the Kwara State Government, how then can people deny others the right to express their faith in a setting that is largely secular?
If we say that the government of Nigeria is a secular one and this secularity is entrenched by the constitution in all governments whether they be at the state, local or Federal levels, then is it appropriate for the government to fund and administer schools that then turn around to segregate against its own citizens? Is it fair?
Had the State Government sought to compel every citizen in Kwara to don a hijab or turban whether they be Christians or Muslims, then yours sincerely would be up in arms against such a government but this is not the case and as I argued with a friend, a school is neither a Church or a Mosque, it is a centre for learning! I thus disagree with the argument that a child wearing a hijab in a school is a desecration of the Christian Faith, in what world?
As Christians, our Holy Book preaches tolerance and understanding, it is indeed however sad that at this point in time, certain persons are over heating the polity over an issue that has no importance to our growth or development as a nation.
At a point where the United States and number of nations are jostling to put a man in Mars, we here are fiddling with overt religious issues with no import to our well being or our souls.
We cannot continue like this!
Nigeria Will Succeed!!!
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