Some muslims and Christian groups are
currently locked in battle over the new
education policy introduced by Osun
State Governor Rauf Aregbesola.
The Christian Association of Nigeria in
the state had opposed the policy, saying
it was introduced to wipe away the
heritage bequeathed unto them by the
Last week, the Osun Baptist Congress
staged a protest against the new
education policy in the state, saying
they would not allow hijab-wearing
students to be merged with the
students of the Baptist College, Iwo.
But the Joint Muslims Action Forum,
which is an umbrella body for all Islamic
groups in the state, issued a statement
on Sunday condemning the protest by
the Osun Baptist Congress.
The statement was issued by JOMAF
Coordinator, Alhaji Kola Uzamat; and
Secretary, Mr. Qaasim Odedeji.
The group described the prevention of
hijab-wearing students from Christian
schools as an act of religious intolerance,
which the Islamic group said would not
be allowed in the state.
They accused Christians of attempting to
sabotage Aregbesola’s policy, which they
said was introduced to address the
decay in the education sector in the
state.
Aregbesola is a Muslim.
Also, the Catholic Media Practitioners in
the state has threatened to drag the
state government to court in order to
stop the schools merger.
The CAMP, in a statement issued by its
Public Relations Officer, Mr. Richard
Adesida, said that the new policy,
especially transforming single-sex
schools to co-educational was
unacceptable to the Catholic and it
would be resisted by every legal means.
The JOMAF statement read, “This is a
blatant display of religious intolerance
and lack of accommodation which
cannot stand the test of time in a multi-
religious society. This is an appropriate
time and medium to debunk the age-
long erroneous ownership claims on
those schools that were acquired by
missionaries from various host
communities.
“The Baptist High Schools in Iwo, Ede
and Iree as well as the Methodist High
School, Otan Ayegbaju; Gbongan
\Odeomu Anglican Grammar School and
St Paul’s Anglican Grammar School,
Ilobu, were all founded by their various
Muslim-dominated communities but
were fraudulently hijacked in the course
of registration and search for teachers.
“We wish to draw the attention of the
Baptist convention and other
missionaries to the fact that the loss or
obliteration of their heritage could not
be rightly located in the education
transformation policy of the present
administration in Osun State.
“The issue of ownership of schools had
been settled way back in the mid-
seventies when the then Federal
Government acquired all missionary
schools, both Muslim and Christian-
owned and compensated them for
same.”
The Catholic group condemned the
turning of single-sex school into mixed
ones, saying they would not allow the
merging of Catholic schools in the state
with some other schools as a result of
the “obnoxious educational policy of the
state government.”
“We are particularly sad that schools like
St. Charles Grammar School, Osogbo;
and St. John Grammar School, Ile – Ife
which were boys’ school now joined
together with female schools,” the statement read.
No comments:
Post a Comment