New Telegraph

Hijab crisis hamstrings Kwara school system

‘Crisis should have been averted if rules on use of hijab were obeyed’

 

CONTROVERSY Kwara State school system, in the past few months, has been bogged down by lingering controversy of hijab-wearing by Muslim female students in Christian mission schools, a situation which has since resulted in series of clashes between Christians and Muslims. STEPHEN OLUFEMI ONI examines the crisis

 

˜CAN: No to hijab-wearing in our mission schools

˜Muslim: It’s our female students’ right to wear hijab

 

There is no letup in the lingering crisis rocking Kwara State school system over hijab wearing by Muslim female students to school, which has torn the state apart. In the past few months, the Christian and Muslim communities, who are at loggerhead with each other, have been engrossed in skirmishes over hijab wearing in schools.

 

While the Christians are saying no to hijab in their mission schools, the Muslims are insisting that it is the right of Muslim female students to wear hijab and thus is asking the state government to enforce the policy of hijab usage on all public schools secondary schools in the state.

 

I will be recalled that the crisis first broke out in early 2021 in 10 government Grant-Aided Christian Mission Schools in Ilorin, but while the dust raised by that crisis was yet to settle, trouble again started on February 3, this year, at Oyun Baptist High School, Ijagbo in Oyun Local Government Area of the state, which led to the death of one person, while scores other were seriously injured.

 

The crisis that broke out in the state’s schools system in 2021 over the use of hijab by Muslim female students, also led to several people sustaining varying degrees of injuries.

 

But, the state government in its intervention, introduced a policy ratifying the use of hijab in all public schools in the state, including the Grant-Aided Mission Schools  and cautioned the Christian and Muslim communities to respect and abide by the decision.

 

Expectedly, the policy, which is being enforced by the state government, did not go down well with the Christian community, including the original owners of the mission schools, who believed that the policy was biased and skewed against the Christian community in the state.

 

They, therefore, in their agitation called on the state government to reverse the policy in order to allow peace to reign in the state.

 

This is even as the relative peace in the mission schools since the introduction of the policy has become that of the graveyard, while the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the original owners of the mission schools insisted that at no time did they agree to the wearing of hijab in their schools and accused the state government of forcing the policy on their schools.

 

Regrettably, a fresh crisis, which culminated into bloody clash erupted penultimate Thursday at Oyun Baptist High School (OBHS), Ijagbo in Oyun Local Government Area over the same vexed issue of hijab usage by Muslim female students in the school, which the school management vehemently opposed.

 

To prevent the crisis which claimed the life of one person from further escalating, the state government in a statement issued by the Commissioner for Education, Hajia Sa’adatu Modibbo Kawu, had announced immediate closure of the school, pending resolution of the crisis, while the police was directed to fish out and prosecute the  perpetrators of the mayhem.

 

The statement reads in part: “The Kwara State Government unreservedly condemns the flagrant act of discrimination against anyone, especially children on religious grounds. Such discrimination will not be tolerated in any public-owned institution in the state.

 

While the government and the security agencies continue to work with leaders on all sides, it hereby directed the immediate shutdown of the school pending the resolution of the issue.”

 

Addressing journalists in Ijagbo on behalf of Oyun Local Government Area CAN, Rev. Samuel Ajayi, however, blamed some suspected Muslim fundamentalists for the bloody violence in the school, insisting that CAN and the Christian community in the state would not allow the use of hijab in their schools.

 

He said: “It has been said times without number that we cannot and will not allow the use of hijab in our mission schools. We have since asked the state government to return our schools to us.

 

“We want to inform the general public that whatever happens in our schools on the hijab issue, the public should lay the blame at the doorstep of the state government.

 

“The aim and mission of those that went to Oyun Baptist High School to foment trouble on the issue of hijab will fail. The state chapter of CAN will resist their moves, even with the last ounce of our blood. We, therefore, demand that the hoodlums be fished out and prosecuted under the law.

 

“We implore the state government to as a matter of urgency return our schools to us. Christians are bonafide citizens of this state and we own it together. If the state government refuses, we will use all constitutional means open to us to get our schools back.”

 

The association further said that the violence could have been averted if the state government had heeded an earlier appeal by the Christian body to address the issue as an unbiased umpire.

 

CAN, in a statement jointly signed by its Acting Chairman, Bishop S. T. G. Adewole and Secretary, Rev. R. I. Ibitoye respectively, recalled their Letter of Appeal to the state Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on January 25, 2022, urging him “to urgently intervene in the ongoing hijab controversy at the OBHS and other mission schools in Oyun and Offa Local Government Areas.”

 

Expressing dismay that their appeal was ignored by the state government, they alleged: “To put the record straight, precisely on February 2, 2022, some Muslim fanatics with some Muslim female students of OBHS protested in the community and later went to Ilorin to protest at the Government House, chanting slogans such as …no school tomorrow except with hijab.

 

“Unfortunately, on February 3, the Muslims also mobilised themselves with dangerous weapons and unleashed mayhem on the innocent  Christian Proprietors; in which the weapons were freely used by the fundamentalists. “The report at our disposal indicates that an innocent passerby was also attacked cutlass by these Muslim fanatics.

 

That person is not a Christian as wrongfully claimed by some people. The fellow, who later reappeared, allegedly reinforced his fellow thugs to retaliate his attack. This led to fracas with the Muslim protesters. It was the timely intervention of the security agents that restored normalcy at the school gate.”

 

But, in their reaction to the violence, Muslim stakeholders in the state, at a press conference addressed in Ilorin, called for a complete renaming of all the Grant-Aided Mission Schools in the state by the government as a “permanent solution to the recurring crisis of hijab wearing by Muslim school girls.”

 

The Chairman of the Muslim Forum, Alhaji Isiaq Albdulkareem, alleged that “one of the parents of the Muslim students of the OBHS was killed during the fracas, and also left no fewer than 11 parents injured.”

 

Albdulkareem, who lamented the failure of the state government to enforce its policy on wearing of hijab by female Muslim students in schools, asked the government to “immediately take over, rename and rebrand all government grant-aided mission schools” in the state.

 

Albdulkareem, who called for immediate closure of the school and relocation of the students to other schools pending the resolution of the crisis, also urged the state government to set up a Commission of Inquiry to unravel those behind the killing and maiming of innocent Muslim parents in Ijagbo, with a view to prosecuting them in accordance with the law.

 

The Legal Adviser to the Forum, Mr. Ibrahim Agbaje, said the Christian Association of Nigeria had lost the two suits it instituted at the lower and appellate courts on hijab wearing by Muslim students, saying he was not aware of any appeal by CAN on the matter at the Supreme Court.

 

CAN has since maintained that the case was appealed at the Supreme Court and is still before the court. In a related development, the former students of the Oyun Baptist High School (OBHS), however, condemned the bloody clash in the school, saying it was politically motivated and cautioned the government and other stakeholders against incendiary utterances.

 

Spokesperson of the 1984 Set of the school, Mr. Tunde Adesina, who is also the Olu Omo of Ijagbo land, who spoke in Ilorin on the sideline of a re-union and teachers’ appreciation award of the Set, appealed to the state government to resolve the row with dispatch for the sake of the students.

 

He said: “The recent hijab row in the school is very unfortunate. We need to eschew incendiary utterances.

 

Though the government has issued a policy that does not go down well with a certain faith, despite that we need to dialogue and look at the way the policy could be reversed so that peace could reign again in the schools.

 

“The hijab controversy has further polarised the community along religious lines. The government will only succeed where there is peace, and should therefore weigh the options and bring the challenges to peaceful resolution in good time, as the school has been locked while the students are the ones losing.”

 

Also, a former teacher of the school, Alhaji Ibiyeye Razaq, described the hijab crisis in the school as unfortunate, saying: “I don’t think that we should quarrel over the issue of religion. I mean nobody can defend God. I am not happy that it went to the extent that the school would be shut.”

 

Meanwhile, Governor AbdulRazaq has set up a sevenman committee to investigate the circumstances that led to the recent violence in OBHS; and as part of its terms of reference to establish the roles played by everyone involved, and recommend to the state government what steps to be taken to avoid a recurrence in the future.

 

The Committee is chaired by the pioneer Provost of Kwara State College of Health Technology and currently a Director at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Dr. Shehu Omoniyi; and co-chaired by the Secretary General of Ijagbo Descendants Progressive Union, Mr. Emmanuel Adebayo Fatola.

 

“The panel will invite and listen to all the parties, including leadership of the school; establish the truth about what really happened and the roles of various persons involved, and to make recommendations to the government on how to prevent such unfortunate situation in the future,” the CPS to the Governor, Rafiu Ajakaye, said.

 

The statement added that the committee, which has three weeks, from the day of its first sitting, to submit its report, urged the people of the community and the parties involved to cooperate with the committee and to give peace a chance.

 

To further douse the tension, a state government delegation, led by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Prof. Mamman Saba Jibril visited Ijagbo community to appease both parties in the controversy to embrace peace and respect the government’s lawful directive.

 

Prof. Jibril, who delivered the governor’s message, urged the people to live peacefully and harmoniously with each other in order to prevent the recurrence of the situation, even as he warned against reprisals that could only lead to a cycle of violence and damage to the economy of the area.

 

The SSG added that the crisis would have been averted if those involved had obeyed the rules and regulations in the state public schools on the use of hijab for willing Muslim female students.

 

Receiving the government delegation in his palace on behalf of the Onijagbo, the Olora of Ijagbo High Chief Mudashir Ajiboye, thanked Governor AbdulRazaq for the delegation and promised that they would continue to prevail on the people in order to give peace a chance, saying the people of Ijagbo have a long history of religious tolerance, harmony and peaceful coexistence.

 

But, top CAN officials in the state, however, recalled that “at no time did Kwara CAN and stakeholders sign or concede to any agreement or policy with the Kwara State Government on the use of hijab as it is being claimed by the Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, Hajia Modibbo Kawu.”

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