This is why I think public schools can at least be the vanishing point where fundamentalist zeal can be attenuated. There is already enough religion in the atmosphere for a Nigerian child to absorb, schools need not contribute to it. Certain rituals like “morning devotion” which is actually “Christian” in outlook should be scrapped and no specific religious culture entertained. Parents, who think their child has not received sufficient moral instructions in the home or at the various religious centres, should not yield the indoctrination process to schools. They should simply try harder or opt for private schools.
The suffusion of Nigerian society with religion and its politics is an anomaly that cannot be easily excised – for now. In Nigeria, political issues, religious pretext are often used to overshadow serious issues.
If Muslims are not complaining that they are underrepresented at National Conference, Christians are expressing anxiety that a political party is too Islamic. While both are at it, neither remembers to hold candidates who profess their religion to higher standards.
So, why not take religion away – at least from schools? Fundamentalists who go beat up a school principal over Hijab can at least redirect their energies to something else, like demanding more qualitative education for their children. If public schools should teach religion at all, it should include as many viewpoints as possible. They should focus, not on dogma but on its contradictions. Schools should not be an extension of churches or mosques but a place where people learn to ask questions. Schools should teach that nobody’s faith is superior; that all religions are relative; that God is too big a phenomenon to be approached in one or two prescribed ways; and if he can cause the sun to shine on both “believers” and “non-believers”, then, it makes no sense for his adherents to attack one other.
The case of Osun State, by the way, has been brewing for a while and the ongoing disaffection is quite instructive. It should tell us that we have perhaps over-romanticised the relative peace the South-West enjoys and in the process, missed the seismic waves that rumble all the time. One of the ways we can pre-empt an eruption is by taking religion out of public schools and keeping it where it belongs: in the heart.
In fact, those who praise the Yoruba for their religious tolerance easily forget the University of Ibadan religious crisis in the 80s that had town and gown quickly joined in an unholy political matrimony. That crisis did not respect the universe in the university; it was actually promoted by intellectuals who, one would expect, should take a more rational stance in such affairs.
Those who write on Yoruba religious tolerance often have not been to churches and mosques in the South-West where people are busy pulling one another’s faith down. Perhaps, it is time for the analysts to ask if the Yoruba have a more delineated sense of religious-oriented identity than the credit we give them. Do people put their religion ahead of their tribe or the other way round? It might be worthwhile to find out.
While the Osun situation cannot be divorced from the politics of an election year, it is important to note that the genie cannot go back into the bottle. People who are aggrieved in this situation cannot be forcefully appeased. I am reluctant to put down the resentment on either side down to mere intolerance because both sides actually have a point.
Both Christians and Muslims, as I see it, are fighting against the same thing: the erosion of their identity.
If Christians say they don’t want their ancient landmarks removed, then let them take back the schools, manage them with their own money and dictate their own terms. The same should go for Muslims. As for schools that have no religious affiliation, let them be strictly secular. We will all be the better for it.
Let me anticipate the arguments of conservatives for retention of religion in public schools: One of the points consistently flogged around in such debates is that separating religion from public spaces causes moral breakdown in the society with long-term impacts such as high crime rate carried out by children raised without a moral compass. This is an opinion that is founded on superstition, not on either facts or logic. No “God” should ever be insecure enough to destroy a society because the people do not worship him the way he wants.
Take, for instance, the case of the United States where religion is not allowed in public schools: a statistical verification shows that, compared to the last six to eight decades, their crime rates are actually far lower. Crime was actually higher when religion was part of public school system. In Nigeria where we can’t pray enough, our schools and societies experience violence. The point is, “the God factor” adds nothing to public protection other than using fear to whip us in line.
I am convinced that the disruption of school activities by children in Osun State was not self-prompted; some adults staged it for their own purposes. And I believe that those who fuel the controversy – on all sides – have probably never enrolled their own children in any of those public schools. If their children are not safely tucked away in private schools, they are probably out of Nigeria, being trained by atheists and agnostics. It is mostly the children of the masses –who are the ones who fill the public schools anyway – that are readily available as manipulative tools by politicians.
via PUNCH.
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