₦airaland Forum

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ibnlawal:
READ THE BELOW ARTICLE FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THIS SAGA

Hijāb_* *Controversy* *In* *Ten* *Schools* *In* *Ilorin*
On the 19th February 2021, the Kwara State government ordered the closure of ten schools formerly owned by some Christian bodies. The schools were taken over by the government in 1974. The government, however, allowed them to continue to bear their Christian names, while the government has been responsible for the running cost and maintenance of the schools. The ten public schools were ordered closed by the government to prevent the breakdown of law and order following the refusal of the former owners of the schools to allow Muslim teachers and students of the schools use _hijāb_ within the premises of the schools.
It will be recalled that there had been _hijāb_ controversy in Kwara State since 2012, following the attempt of the former owners of the schools to have full control over the schools that had been taken over by the State government. They demanded that the schools should be returned to them. Consequently the government was sued by the Christian bodies at an Ilorin high court but the Kwara Muslim Community applied to be joined in the suit on behalf of the Muslim students who are not allowed to use _hijāb_ in the schools. The State government won the case on the 17th of May 2016. The judgment was appealed and the Christians lost again in September 2019. It is remarkable to note that the Appeal Court ruled that the appellants lacked the right to make Christianity the only standard in the schools. It also said that "the refusal of the schools to allow the use of _hijāb_ is discriminatory as it is a practice in tune with the Constitution. "
The Court of Appeal judgment of September 2019 has not been challenged by the Christians at the Supreme Court. Consequently Muslim students and staff went to their schools with _hijāb_ but they were sent out by the schools' principals and the heads of the Christian bodies which owned the schools before they were taken over by the government in 1974.
One expects these Christian bodies who were dissatisfied with the judgement of the Court of Appeal to proceed to the Supreme Court. Instead they took law into their hands, which is a flagrant disobedience to the judgement of the Court of Appeal. The leaders of the Christian bodies and the principals of the schools should be tried for contempt of court.
Interestingly, Britain that brought Christianity into Nigeria has allowed wearing of the _hijāb_ in her schools since 1980s. The Nigerian Christian bodies want to be more Catholic than the Pope. Toby Howarth, the Bishop of Bradford, in the Diocese of Leeds, of the Church of England supports the wearing of the _hijāb_ by primary school girls. He says:
"This is a matter of religious identity, not sexualization, and the British policy should be not to make a big deal of it, but simply say that you have to wear the right colour that goes with the school uniform" ( _The_ _Sunday_ _Times_ , 03 September 2017)
A _Sunday_ _Times_ survey also reveals that thousands of state primary schools allow girls to wear the _hijāb_ as part of approved school uniform in UK. Incidentally the country has allowed a Muslim woman, in person of Raffia Arshad, who wears _hijāb_ to become a judge.
Ilorin is generally known as a Muslim town. It has been an Emirate since 1823. Muslims are officially in majority. Sharia Court system operates in Kwara State adjudicating over Muslim matters. No non - Muslim has been forced to appear in the court. Christians established schools to convert Muslim students to their religion. They deny Muslims the practice of Islam in an Islamic town with an Emir and great scholars of Islam. The government in its wisdom took over the schools to protect the interest of all, while it has been financing the running of the schools with taxpayers' money, majority of who are Muslims, and yet the Christians continue to oppress the Muslims by not allowing the Muslims to practise their religion. Do the Christians expect the Muslims to fold their hands and watch their children converted to Christianity before their eyes? That is not possible. Christians attend Muslim schools in the state. They are not forced to wear _hijāb_ in the Muslim schools.
Ironically the Bible enjoins Christian females to cover their head (1 Timothy 2:9-10 & 1 Corinthians 11: 4-7). Catholic Rev. Sisters and Mothers obey the biblical injunction. Mary, the mother of Jesus wore _hijāb_ . The artistic impression of Mary as displayed by Christians confirms that. If some Christians now jettison biblical teaching and celebrate nudity, immorality, indecent mode of dressing, Muslims will never do that. They obey the . teachings of the Qur'an on the female mode of dressing (Q33:59 & 24:31). Muslims must note that the Christians want to make Muslims emulate their disobedience to God. Muslims have been warned by Allah against the antics of the Christians (Q2:120). Let's be on our guard and stand firmly by the ethos of Islamic mode of dressing.
Kwara State government should solve this lingering problem once and for all. The government should exercise full control over all the schools that it has taken over. They are public schools. They should be seen as such. No religious body should have any control over the schools. The schools should cease to bear the names that reflect any religious body. They no longer belong to any religious body. That was done in other northern states in 1974.
Principals and Vice Principals should no longer be appointed by the former owners of the schools. Loyalty and allegiance of the Principals and the Vice Principals will always belong to whoever appoints them because whoever pays the piper dictates the tune. The government should appoint them as they appoint other teachers to demonstrate that it is the owner of the schools, and that the schools are not jointly owned by the government and anyone, or partially owned with anyone else.
Every Nigerian has been guaranteed religious freedom by Section 38(1) of the Constitution. Everyone must therefore be allowed to enjoy that freedom wherever he or she may be in Nigeria.
_Jumu'atun_ _Mubārakah_
Prof Yasir Anjola Quadri
14th Rajab, 1442 / 26th February 2021

The Bible says we should dress modestly. Same as the Quran. Women should cover their head IN PRAYER as stated in the Bible. There's no hijab in both books.

Why don't Muslims send their children to Muslim schools for their peace of mind instead of all this stress which is totally avoidable? Muslim schools are certainly grant aided too. Why not build more or expand the available ones to avoid conversion?

In FG Colleges of old, there were uniforms without hijab even in the North including FGC Ilorin. There was the beret for head covering. Students blended happily and all were adequately provided for. There was MSS and SU/SCM for Muslims and Christians respectively... No issues. Muslims were catered for during Ramadan.

Taking over other people's asset is a sin before God. It's a most unfair thing to do. The takeover of schools is what gradually led to the collapse of moral values and reducing education standards nationwide. Lagos State that chose to return schools to their owners is improving in standards by the day because they can now concentrate more on the real public schools which can now compete favourably with the private and mission schools. Dragging everyone down in the name of control while basic infrastructure and prerequisites for high standard of education are not met will continue to breed half baked high school graduates as we see now. Children who at SS level can't string together a few words in English correctly.

It's so disheartening when one visits great schools of old that are now living on past glory all because of the unnecessary desire by some people to control everything possible even when it's detrimental to everyone's progress.

tamdun:
Gbam, that's how CAN pushed El rufai in Kaduna and he jejely chose a muslim as his running mate and he won, CAN should continue pushing their luck in kwara state, all my days in kwara I've never seen Muslims oppress xtians, Ondo state govn demolished ansarudeen sch, wike declared rivers a xtian state, no noise but when a muslim fight for his right the media will explode, hypocrites

Can Christians practice their faith freely in Muslim schools?

This reminds me of market days by the Kaduna river side in Shiroro area. Very beautiful scenery. Unfortunately I lost the pictures taken while on a visit to the place.

Beautiful

How many can they relocate in real terms? What happens to the many who are in remote villages?

A true Christian speaks the truth always moreso a priest. How did he know that it's malaria injection? A pastor should know that deceit, wild assumptions and lies only are sins in the eyes of God.

Loushinalistic:
He's clearly lying, Sanwoolu please where are your own projects? Almost 4 years since you became governor and you have not a single project to your name

Governance is not a personal matter. It's about continuity. Sanwoolu knows that and is keeping to his promise of completing abandoned projects.

Ambode completed Ikorodu road which was at least 90% done by Fashola for instance. Fashola also completed some of BATs projects. That's the way things should be when you put the people first.

No one sent FFK. Very much on his own on this matter.

Olatunji1929:
ode we don burn your new hotel and your houses before soldiers arrived na first attack you gave us the last time datz wat we also gave you this time around

Hmmm! Be careful...don't lay claims to what you didn't partake in. Abo oro la nso fun omoluabi.....

I still don't understand why the 2 towns can't reach a compromise on this land issue that has persisted for years and taken many lives. Governor Ahmed did his best. He was thoughtful and wise to have brokered peace without going into legalities. Going by the law, Offa is at a disadvantage. Why not calm down and live with each other peacefully.?

Zzor:
He has bleached his skin and not innocent in the new picture, perverted sex generation

A long stay in the cold region usually brightens/lightens the skin of those whose skins were darkened by the sun.

Amazing!

Why should a Church accept a family house as "donation" ? They'll confidently eject a whole family because of one man's indiscretion? Perhaps he wasn't even of sound mind at the time.

Pastor Chris should do something about this quickly. It's embarrassing and most disheartening.

Eriokanmi:
Hian. Anyone who married these celebs or beauty queens needs to always be prayerful. Antecedents have shown that their spouses always end it so abruptly

She lived with him for 25 years!

It's sad that people are kidnapping children. The most annoying thing is that they're sold like animals. The worst scenario is that some are sold to ritualists.

Something drastic needs to be done to stop this.

I just dey laugh.

Who no know go know.

I can't remember the last time I bought beef. Other forms of protein are healthier choices. Much more nutritious.

Young people should go into rabbit farming apart from poultry and fishery.

I just dey laugh.

Who no know go know.

I can't remember the last time I bought beef. Other forms of protein are healthier choices.

Young people should go into rabbit farming apart from poultry and fishery.

MejiLoyon:
We should learn to look at options
4 thousand naira meat wey I buy on Friday be like bobrisky blokos. Very small. I no talk. Yesterday na fish I buy. Plenty and sweet. My kids dey do yuck yuck I dey do yummy yummy. Last last we chop am together and slept happily. Moral...look for options.As meat no dey I enter fish. If fish scarce I go enter crayfish. If crayfish scarce na to buy Maggi chicken flavour. The flavour go make believe. Them say onions go scarce I don buy the flavours down. Pepper scarce I don buy plenty ata gungun. If tomatoes scarce we go use tinned tomatoes.
Let's adapt. When their craze come down after hunger show dem kukere dem go sell. We move

Wise moves! Ila alasepo with crayfish will escort any swallow beautifully well. We'll restrategise and mooove.

Kaduna1stson:
If you are hoping on importation to fill the gap, remember that we run the borders, we can close Seme again plus other southern land borders.

We can handpick the foods to be imported from the ports because we are in charge of that sea access too. We can ban chicken and fish imports, alongside tomato and onions imports.

Only God is supreme.

Really? While it is true that kidnappers are from all tribes, we know the supremos at this point in time.

How come the people are now living in peace?

Nothing lasts forever. Southerners should go back to mechanized farming. There were functional Farm settlements and cattle ranches in the past. All were abandoned only to become reliant on goods from the North.

The major challenge is the recent invasion of farms and kidnapping/rape by some criminal herders. If this can be stopped, enough food can be provided by our farmers. Villagers will be lifted out of poverty too. We need to have basic amenities in our local spaces to make the farmers efforts worthwhile and their living conditions more decent.

Thanks for this. Very valuable information at this point in time.

We had ranches and big farm settlements years ago. I remember seeing fresh milk delivered to offices in Ibadan up to the late 70s. The military incursion into governance killed the dreams. It's not too late to start afresh.

rocknation62:
When you talk about film productions in Nigeria, you mention the likes of TUNDE KILANI,KUNLE AFOLAYAN & KEMI ADETIBA.

Plus late Amaka Igwe. May her soul rest in peace.

He has forgotten that we all gladly voted for MKO Abiola even with a Muslim - Muslim ticket. Nobody considered a candidate's religion as being of great importance in good governance. We only wanted the best. His fellow Muslim and friend IBB annuled the election. Where was Muric then to join in the protests?

Now we know better.

Somehow this looks like murder. I wish it could be investigated and not closed because of the suicide note.

May their families be comforted as their souls rest in peace.

To make the city truly "mega" and modern, the issue of area boys, roadside parking touts and "owo mi da" guys needs to be urgently addressed. The last time that was effectively done was during the Marwa era. BRF also tried. The long term effect if not curbed will be devastating.

We need to get back to the days of self respect, honesty, dignity of labor, integrity, diligence and focus on good values...part of the omoluabi ethos.

This doesn't sound right. How about Sinach or other less controversial artistes? Her dressing to the occasion doesn't reflect Christian values at all.

Thank God! Long overdue.
One of the programs derailed by Ambode was the building of new hospitals as stated in the 30 year development plan. He built none sadly.

May their souls rest in peace. All in a bid to save souls.

I pray that God comforts and upholds their loved ones. So sad.

This is commendable

Tranquility4u:
I see no reason why Muslim students should be denied
their constitutional rights.

All Muslim students, in particular, female students should be allowed to dress in Hijab since these schools are for the public.


“Are the schools not grant-aided? So you want to use
public money to persecute Muslim children until they
submit to forceful conversion? Even if they are
missionary schools, must they force female Muslim
students to strip? We are not surprised because it is
part of their old way of forceful conversion. Nigerian
Christians should desist from using Muslim children to
subject their parents to psychological trauma. We will
not go back to slavery. Enough is enough.

The Kwara State government should pay off the Missionaries and take over the schools as full public schools to resolve the issue permanently. That way there'll be no more conflicts. It's unfair to forcefully acquire Christian schools without compensation and then impose contrary rules at will.

AnanseK:
But Yorubas have the opportunity to come out and prove IBB wrong. They now have a General, the Thug and Rascal Sunday Igboho to lead them. A befitting counterpart for the mad albino Kanu leading the Biafran piglets.

Same IBB who had no choice but to "step aside" when the heat from Yorubas became too much for him.