The first primary school in Northern Nigeria was built 156 years ago at Lokoja. It is supposed to be a metaphor for national integration. Unfortunately, its present condition is reminiscent of the precarious state of inter communal relations in our nation. Established at what in Hausa is known as “Loko Ja” (A brownish corner) at the confluence of what the Nupe call “Kwara” (River Niger) and what was known during the Kanem-Bornu Empire as “Tchadda” which the French renamed La Bénoué now River Benue, Holy Trinity School was established by Samuel Ajayi Crowther in 1865 a year after he was consecrated as Bishop of the Niger Territories that streched from Jebba in present-day Kwara, to the the Niger Delta region including Idah in Kogi and Onitsha of Anambra.
An accomplished Hausa speaker and with a smattering of Arabic, Crowther published; A Vocabulary of Yoruba Language in 1852; A Primer in Ibo Language in 1857 and a book on the grammar and vocabulary of Nupe in 1864. He was a quintessential educationist. The raging controversy over the use of the Islamic female head gear known as Hijab in Kwara State in the North Central geopolitical zone of Nigeria, where currently ten Christian mission founded schools have been shut down is therefore an antithesis to his legacy. That the crisis has even most recently escalated to violence is worrisome. The potential for a full blown confrontation that will reveberate across our nation looms large.
How did Christian schools in Kwara get embroiled in the controversy of Hijab in the first place?
It all started after the Nigerian Civil War when the former Administrator of East Central State, Ukpabi Asika promulgated Public Education Edict No. 5 of 1970 “for the regulation of education, and its provision and management”
Soon the then 11 other states in Nigeria followed suit including the mass take-over of schools from churches and voluntary agencies. This hostile takeover without compensation was supported by Federal Military Government. The said basis was to unify the education curriculum and adequately fund schools and standardize teaching nationwide. A general fall in the standard of education followed instead. The rest as they say is now history up to when the Lagos, Edo and Ogun state governments variously started returning the schools to their respective owners for proper management. Several have completely done so including Anambra which is part of the 5 states created out of Mr. Asika’s former East Central. Governor Peter Obi would handover 1,040 of these schools back to Christian missions including a monetary package totalling N6 billion. The Catholic Church in Anambra would have 453 of its schools returned raking-in N762 million in compensation.
None of the 19 states in the North has returned any school – so far. However, a political solution was sought in Kwara state by its Christian community for partial management and government aid in form of grant. It is under that auspices that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has put its foot down that Hijab would not be used by female student in ten schools. The state government and Muslim community have in turn insisted in the use of Hijab in the affected school, non compliance of which resulted in the schools remaining shut.
The affected schools are Cherubim & Seraphim College, Sabo Oke; St. Anthony College, Offa Road; ECWA School, Oja Iya; Surulere Baptist Secondary School; and Bishop Smith Secondary School, Agba Dam. Others include, CAC Secondary School, Asa Dam; St. Barnabas Secondary School, Sabo Oke; St. John School, Maraba; St. Williams Secondary School, Taiwo Isale, and St. James Secondary School Maraba, all in Ilorin, the state capital.
In 2013, the Kwara branch of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) took the state government to court in any attempt to wrestle back schools owned by member denominations. An Ilorin High Court ruled in favor of the government in 2016. Upon appeal a superior court upheld the judgement of the lower. Kwara CAN is currently at the Supreme Court. The demand is that the affected schools be fully returned.
The argument is that; “these affected schools were founded by the various Christian missions, to promote Christian ideals in the pursuit of education. After government took over the schools about four decades ago, the then military government recognized the fact that these were heritage of the founders of the school and retained their founding names, school uniforms, anthems and symbols. The only changes were in the areas of funding, staffing and supervision of the schools, which was now in the hands of government.”
That is why the resort to a CAN prayer session that was held Sunday, February 21, 2021 at St. Barnabas Anglican Cathedral, Sabo-Oke, Ilorin. Meanwhile, the Monday, March 8, 2021 deadline that was given by Governor Abdulrahman Abdurazak for CAN to back down has come and gone without the origin owners of the affected schools shifting ground.
The Hijab controversy in Kwara must be viewed in overall contex because the increased use of the female Islamic headgear started with the implementation of Sharia in Zamfara state in 2000. It engulfed the Northern states before travelling down South to Osun state then under Governor Rauf Aregbesola before berthing in Lagos under Babatunde Fashola. It is not the only form of subtle jihad in the educational sector.
Yobe state is predominately Islam. It however has a substantial indigenous Christian population. Since the creation of the state on August 27, 1991 no Yobe Christian from any of the 17 Local Government Areas (LGAs) has ever been appointed a Commissioner. Only one Christian has been able to attain the position of a Permanent Secretary – courtesy of his classmate then Governor Bukar Abba Ibrahim.
Recently, the Yobe State Universal Basic Education Board (YSUBEB) announced on its official website vacancies for Teachers and Head Teachers. Interested candidates were required to apply through www.vacancy.ysubeb.com as from 15th to 24th February, 2021. Among the academic requirements, prospective candidates “must also possess knowledge in Arabic (Islamic Education)”
Yobe is a state where teachers are not employed at both primary and secondary levels to teach Christian Religious Knowledge (CRK) The subject is taught by volunteer teachers. No Christian teacher ever gets appointed as Head Teacher nor Principal. Now teachers according to YSUBEB must have a background in Arabic and Islamic Education!
In Yobe as elsewhere in the North, there is an ongoing agenda which under all circumstances and by any means necessary is engaging in stealth Jihad. As J. Trimingham puts it in page 28 of; Islam in West Africa (1959) – “Islam in power is a secularized theocracy and this always leads to forms of religious imperialism.
How are Nigerian Christians collectively confronting issues such as the Hijab controversy in Kwara and religious profiling in Yobe?
Undoubtedly, there is an overwhelming lack of cohesion among Nigerian Christians. This is a direct fallout of an all-pervading lackadaisical attitude and inbuilt lethargy arising from leadership disconnect. To understand this we have gravitate back to an account given by C.O. Williams, founding National Secretary of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) as contained in Dr. Iheanyi M Enwerem’s – A Dangerous Awakening: Politicization of Religion in Nigeria (1995) on genesis of how CAN was established;
“A telegram was received towards the end of August, 1976 from the then Brigadier Shehu Yar’Adua, the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Military Headquarters, inviting church leaders to a meeting at Dodan Barracks.
The meeting, which lasted ‘barely forty minutes’, turned out to be a gathering of thirty-three church leaders from thirteen denominations.
In that meeting with the church leaders, the Chief of Staff read out an address to say in effect that ‘the Government was about to consult the church leaders on the National Pledge which was to be recited in the schools and wanted to know their opinion. Aimed at inculcating a combination of religious and political values in the youths of the nation, ‘the pledge’, as it came to be popularly known, read thus:
‘I pledge to Nigeria my country,
To be faithful, loyal, and honest,
To serve Nigeria with all my strength,
To defend her unity,
And uphold her honour and glory,
So help me God.’
Mr. Williams adds; “Unprepared to give an impromptu response to the address, and apparently wanting to speak with one voice, the church leaders delayed their response and assured the Chief of Staff that a prepared rejoinder would be brought to the government at a later date.”
Enwerem’s, a Catholic priest ordained in 1978 concludes William’s narrative wit another participant at Dodan Barracks, Revd Habila Aleyedeino;
“One of our members asked that the participants at least round up the meeting with a prayer, despite the fact that the meeting had not opened with a prayer. Brigadier Yar’Adua, the host, and the Chief of Army Staff, said that, since there were various denominations, he did not know who could be called upon to lead the prayers. We were so worried that the government should make this observation about our not being united, so we decided that we must do something.”
Both accounts remain instructive.
The controversy over the use of Hijab has even transcended the primary and secondary educational levels. On December 12, 2017 a certain Amasa Firdaus dressed with Hijab was prevented from being called to Bar because she had violated the prescribed dress code of the Council of Legal Education. By July 10, 2018 she was dressed that same way in addition to her lawyer’s wig and gown and called to Bar regardless. The Body of Benchers upheld her right to dress as prescribed by her religion. If so why should Hijab wearing learners not be withdrawn from the Christian faith-based schools and taken to Muslim Colleges where they can wear their headgear without any rancor? On the flip side why not fully return these 10 schools back to their original owners?
What are the options open for the indigenous Christians of Yobe state and indeed the owners of Christian mission schools in Kwara?
Nigerian Christians require more cohesion. We deserve better and more qualitative leadership in these perilous times. Lest we forget when Church mission schools were taken over Nigeria’s Number One and Two were all the service chiefs including GOCs – indeed an overwhelming majority of the then Supreme Military Council and 8 of the 12 state governors in Nigeria were Christians. There is need for the Nigerian Christian community to stand in the gap for our brethren in Yobe.
Islamization has many fronts. The use of hijab in Christian schools is just another form of subtle jihad – an often unadvertised pillar of Islam in any secular setting. There is no orthodox sect or school of Islam that teaches that Muslims must coexist peacefully as equals with non-Muslims on an indefinite basis. Yobe Christians should not bear their cross alone. Indeed the victims of Southern Kaduna and Southern Gombe that were recently cheated out of the Mai Tangale stool. Why is the Holy Trinity School at Lokoja as dilapidated as it looks? It is because it is exactly in the same situation as the 10 schools in Kwara – established by Christian missions but run by government.
In the pursuit of their agenda Muslims are often highly motivated and relentless in using stealth, subversion and sedition. Christians are least expected to react in like manner. However, the need for cohesion and proactiveness cannot be overemphasized.
There should be a clarion call by Nigerian Christians for the return of Christian mission schools in the North including those outstanding in the South. This would help galvanize Nigerian Christians to have common purpose and direction. Like the formation of CAN became a necessity, Nigerian Christians should use the Hijab controversy in Kwara and the religious profiling in Yobe to be a mother of invention!
“It is either we learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools” – Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)
