http://m.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10200125471289748&refid=48

Very disturbing. The world has been silent on this for far too long.

“I see America through the eyes of a victim. I
don't see any American dream. I see an
American nightmare” - Malcolm X
As the Obafemi Awolowo University continues its golden jubilee celebrations
amidst pomp and pageantry, there are silent
tears being shed somewhere. Strange
activities of the security men on OAU campus some weeks back till this period with respect to persecution of female Muslim students who wear the face-veil is becoming unbearable. They carry out these actions under the pretext of enforcing the provisions of the school dress code. What is however baffling is that these rules have actually been in existence for a couple of years, and it has been known to be exclusively invoked on the Muslim students alone. Now they have transcended all levels of reason, going as far as arresting and detaining these students, seizing their student identity cards, threatening their parents and coercing them to sign vindictive undertakings under duress.
Sounds all too familiar! We thought we had
done away with the times of the military and
their usual way of treating the masses.
It is important to note, that there is a major
part of this dress code which prohibits
WEARING OF PROVOCATIVE DRESSES. It
would be sheer waste of time to start telling
you about the situation with those who fall
into this category, dresses keep getting
smaller as more flesh gets shown. Note the
use of the word “provocative”; a very relative
word that cannot be morally defined.
Interestingly, no such person has ever been
accosted or treated the way the Muslim
ladies have been treated. Why then do the
school security men have to unleash their
frustration on students who have decided to
protect their dignity, honour and chastity;
students who have decided to uphold their
Islamic tenets about dressing.
I find it rather offensive to have to put up
with naked thighs, cleavage, breasts and
buttocks which are flaunted daily on our
campus; a direct consequence of the
sexualization drive we have taken from the
West in direct contrast to our native African
values of feminine modesty. I thought there
is a university that prides itself on learning
and culture located somewhere in Ile-Ife.
Why did the school management pay
LAGBAJA – a masked musician to entertain at
the recently held 50th anniversary
celebration? Isn’t it that everyone’s face is
supposed to be visible at all times? Why then
are these female Muslims who are practicing
their religion being subjected to irrational
persecution? What a manifestation of deceit
and hypocrisy!
Moreso, S[38] of The Constitution of Federal
Republic of Nigeria guarantees freedom of
thought, conscience and religion, as well as
freedom to propagate one’s religion, practice
and observance of its tenets publicly or in
private. S[42] of the same Constitution
guarantees right to freedom from
discrimination inter alia on the basis of
religious belief .
With recourse to the above Constitutional
provisions, it would be better if the so called
school security men could keep away from
this dastardly act and any officer or official
worth the name should know that religion is
too sensitive an issue to mess around with in
Nigeria today. This issue must not be known
to those outside this campus, because it
would be so incredulous to hear that the
face veil, an Islamic identity is coming under
a ban in a Nigerian university, founded and
funded by the joint resource of our fathers.
If Muslims are not harassed in Port Harcourt
or Enugu, they do not deserve to be
harassed in the precincts of a Federal
University in Osun State. If the face veil is
allowed in the hallowed confines of Harvard,
Yale and other institutions known to be well
ahead of our Great Ife in all ramifications, I
don’t know why OAU has elected to be
different by giving body and soul to
discrimination. Islamophobia is real and alive
in our world, what OAU has done is to only
bring it to our shores.
Calling this act an oppressive one is
describing it in glowing terms; we can’t
continue to suffer the same way we did
under the colonial masters. This struggle
reminds of the disheartening stories of the
slaves that were taken from the shores of
the African coasts of Cape in Ghana, Badagry
in Lagos and other places along the Gulf of
Guinea. They were taken as prisoners,
treated with disdain and made to pass
through humiliating experiences. They were
never broken, and that was the spirit in the
Alex Haley movie about Kunta Kinte. The
most demoralizing thing done to them
according to the survivors was the alienation
of their religious identities under forced
conversions. We shall refuse to be renamed
Tolby Waller, and stick to being Kunta Kinte.
Be informed that no security reports
whatsoever has ever been put forward
concerning the veil to warrant such
iniquitous treatment of these women. While
the school management may want to save its
face by arguing based on security concerns,
it is noteworthy that UNIMAID (Maiduguri),
BUK (Kano) and ABU (Zaria); all federal
institutions situated in the most volatile
regions of the Nigerian nation have not
made the disheartening move that OAU has
made. And how does the OAU management
explain the victimization of Muslim Nursing
students who are not allowed to wear capes
and Pharmacy students denied the right to
wear the hijab that even leaves the face
revealed? Muslims are second class citizens
in OAU and all that remains to be done by
the school authority is to enshrine this in
their book of law.
The OAU campus remains the only university
in the whole of Nigeria where Muslim
females are deprived their basic rights even
while their payments go into running the
affairs of the school. Let the school bring up
its arguments for this unwarranted
persecution based on religious belief, and
the hidden truth shall be revealed. As
Malcolm X stated in an interview; “Sitting at
the table doesn't make you a diner, unless
you eat some of what's on that plate. Being
here in America doesn't make you an
American.” Being in OAU does not make the
school guarantee your rights, especially if
you are Muslim.