Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State, is a Yoruba city. It is now in the throes of a self-inflicted crisis caused by the hijab, the head covering favoured by Muslim laity for their women folks. It is also loved by some Christians, especially the Catholics. It originated from the Middle-East where women are subjected to strict code of fashion. But in Yorubaland, fashion has never been a matter of contention. Now this. The case, I am told, is in the court. Some of the Muslims in Ilorin, apparently with the sympathy of the Governor, do not want to wait for the court. They would rather put the matter in their own hands.

What is surprising is that a Muslim parent, knowingly sending his daughter to a Christian school, still wants his daughter to wear the hijab. The corollary is a Christian parent sending his daughter to a Muslim school and yet does not want his daughter to wear the hijab. Luckily, there is no Orunmila High School in Ilorin. If there is one, I can assure you that no Muslim parent would insist that his daughter wears the hijab in Orunmila High School if it is not part of the prescribed uniform. But Christianity and Islam are both imported religions and we Africans we tend to be more catholic than the Pope.

What we are witnessing in Ilorin is the attempt by the government to take all powers from school authorities. Uniforms are parts of the tradition of each school. It seldom changes and when any principal tries to change it, he or she usually faces hostilities from the Alumni Association. In Kwara, the government claims to derive its power to prescribe uniform and enforce the hijab in all public schools because it is funding those schools.

When Alhaji Ahmadu Bello became the Leader of Government Business in Northern Nigeria in 1952, the government decided to support all mission schools; both Christians and Muslims. Those schools were referred to as grant-aided schools. However, there were also private schools established by individual proprietors who were excluded from this generosity. In the 1970s, all private secondary schools, including the mission schools, were taking over by the government. The government did not pay compensations for these schools. There was the understanding that though the schools had been taken over by the government, the original owners would still have proprietary interest in those schools. That understanding subsists until Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq decided to have interest in the hijab.

Governor Abdulrazaq represents a new kind of change in Kwara State. Before his ascension to power, the dominant force in Kwara politics was the enduring patriarchy of Dr Olusola Saraki and his son, Bukola. The Sarakis were supposed to represent the continuing dominance of the descendants of the Fulani in Ilorin over the Yoruba majority. The coming of Abdulrazaq was a seen as a credible challenge to the old Saraki hegemony. He came in with the Otoge (Enough!) battle cry and was swept to power on the ticket of All Progressives Congress, APC, the party of President Muhammadu Buhari.

In September 2018, a seminar was held at the Ikeja Airport Hotel, Lagos, in honour of the late Chief Bola Ige. Some Abdulrazaq partisans were present in large number at that seminar. I had tackled one of his partisans that this man who claims to represent the Yoruba of Kwara State does not have a single Yoruba name. Why should a fully-grown Yoruba person bears only foreign names? He said it was because of Abdulrazaq Islamic background. I pointed out to him that bearing your native names does not make you less religious. I gave the examples of Ayatollah Rhohollar Khomeini of Iran, Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt, Iyanda Folawiyo of Lagos, Arisekola Alao of Ibadan, Ibrahim Dasuki of Sokoto and many others.

The truth is that many Ilorin people, especially those who are Muslims, are struggling with their Yoruba heritage. They believe wrongly that the less Yoruba they become, the more acceptable they are to what they perceived to be the power-centres of Nigeria. Yet bearing their normal Yoruba names have not deprived the Ilorin people of the ability to rise. We have the illustrious examples of the Sarakis, Major-General Abdul Kareem Adisa, Major General Babatunde Idiagbon and many others.

Kwara belong to we Yoruba Moslems, MURIC made it clear we own Kwara.

Those people sabi others people's history more than Emeritus but they have no single record about their own history..

Oma se oo

Divide n Conquer thread spotted!

Just for purposefully to be mischievous, Kwara state now belongs to Yoruba today.

But it has not been the same op for decades now..

Ajoka

Biafravd is full of potopoto water, so don't blame the op bcuz that is the effect of drinking too much potopoto water.
People from that part of nigeria are brainless

helinues:


Those people sabi others people's history more than Emeritus but they have no single record about their own history..

Oma se oo

Yeyyy!!!

funniest thing the governor passed out from one of the missionary schools (bishop Smith). Muslims sabi find problem sha, what they can never accept they will like to enforce it on other faiths. We have a lot of Islamic schools in Ilorin but they won't attend na missionary schools they will be looking for. To make matters worse they would want to impose their Islamic beliefs on them

Better go face the massacre going on ur red mud region

My stand will always remain staying true to the vision of the founders of these schools in question.
Schools founded by Christian missions should remain with the same vision, likewise schools founded by Muslim missions.
However, community schools, Local government schools, State & Federal schools should be religiously neutral.

Any other thing is an invite to unnecessary unrest & scrimmages

LeoThaGreat:
My stand will always remain staying true to the vision of the founders of these schools in question.
Schools founded by Christian missions should remain with the same vision, likewise schools founded by Muslim missions.
However, community schools, Local government schools, State & Federal schools should be religiously neutral.

Any other thing is an invite to unnecessary unrest & scrimmages

I didn't think your fair enough, we have more Christian schools in Ilorin, so partitioning school children along religious line may deny Muslim children access to education, Christians should learn to be tolerant and remove every restrictions against Muslim school children.

YaribanzaMuslim:
I didn't think your fair enough, we have more Christian schools in Ilorin, so partitioning school children along religious line may deny Muslim children access to education, Christians should learn to be tolerant and remove every restrictions against Muslim school children.

LMAO.


CHECK OUT THIS ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATION:
Christian Missionaries planted plenty orange trees, Muslim missionaries planted a few orange trees of a similar kind. (NOTE: The Muslim missionaries have been in that region since like 600 years ago and have other trees the pluck from [Quranic schools)

Government decided to corner all the orange trees; then the government said they will be sharing the fruits from the Christian-planted orange trees equally with the Muslims.

Now, people like you are saying the Christians should be tolerant and learn to share.
I see it as injustice and unfairness.

The Christians missionaries have laboured, nurtured and invested for about 70 years, now everything they've laboured to build has to be shared with people who neither invested like them nor laboured like they did.

Imagine you built a house for renting with the little resources you have, then the government is dictating what your tenant can do in your house, even when this is against your standard & plan for the house.

To me, that's a precedent of anarchy and public unrest.

I know 100% that if reverse was the case, the Muslim communities both home and abroad will fight against such injustice, because the purpose for establishing the schools is being eroded gradually.

Will the Muslim schools remove every restrictions and allow children of traditionalists to flagrantly wear their attire with their uniforms without suspending such student? Yet children of traditionalist have to wear some things for protection.

The solution I can propose is for the government to return the schools to the founders and establish their own schools and allow everyone stick to the reason they founded the school in the first place.

LeoThaGreat:
My stand will always remain staying true to the vision of the founders of these schools in question.
Schools founded by Christian missions should remain with the same vision, likewise schools founded by Muslim missions.
However, community schools, Local government schools, State & Federal schools should be religiously neutral.

Any other thing is an invite to unnecessary unrest & scrimmages

Little objections
All schools be public or private should be neutral without religious practice
Religious knowledge should be removed from curriculum in primary and secondary school.
All government and commercial institutions should remove religious observance like prayers in their meetings and activities.
Centres of worship should be removed from all places of public interests.
God should be removed from national anthem.

joyandfaith:


Little objections
All schools be public or private should be neutral without religious practice
Religious knowledge should be removed from curriculum in primary and secondary school.
All government and commercial institutions should remove religious observance like prayers in their meetings and activities.
Centres of worship should be removed from all places of public interests.
God should be removed from national anthem.

Unfortunately, we are in Nigeria so your suggestions will take time, money and blood before they can ever be, if they will ever be.