The dramatic turn of events in Osun State, the other day, when students at Baptist High School, Adeeke, Iwo, showed up in school in a motley of religious attire, is a dangerous recipe for violence and political instability, if it is not immediately contained. Apart from being a test of the egalitarian temperament of Governor Rauf Aregbesola, a man so notably religious, it is also a social barometer of the tolerance level of the Osun people, as well as a determinant of the stakes religion has in the political scheme of things as the controversy embroiling education reform in the State opens new fault lines of religious bigotry. The state of education, throughout the country is pathetic; such that a crisis over school uniforms can only be a distraction that reduces the significance of what Governor Aregbesola is trying to achieve in restoring the lost glory of education in the state. In any case, all the stakeholders involved in the crisis, should not be perceived as throwing the baby away with the bath water.
Reports indicated that students came to school in choir robes and other church garments depicting their religious affiliation. The students, who arrived late, proceeded directly to their classrooms to the utter consternation of teachers and other students. The students were obviously reacting to the fact that Muslim female students in the same school are allowed to wear the hijab. In a politically toxic verdict on June 3, Justice Jide Falola of the Osun High Court had ruled that Muslim students be allowed to wear the hijab in all public schools in the state because it was part of their fundamental rights guaranteed in the Nigerian constitution. In a fit of bad judgment and anger, the Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN), held an emergency meeting and threatened that it would direct Christian students to start wearing their choir robes and other religious garments to school, if and when the state implements the judgment.
While it is yet to be ascertained which external influence instigated this crisis, what is clear is that, by this act, the students defied the state government’s directive on common uniform specification for all secondary schools; including a directive by Gov. Aregbesola that students who dress inappropriately to any public school in Osun should be expelled. The governor has taken a swipe at CAN, accusing them of manipulating and using the students as cannon fodder to fan the embers of conflict by encouraging actions that risk overheating the polity. He discounted claims that the state government was out to promote Islam over other religions; advising those who disagree with the court’s judgment to follow due process through the justice system by appealing the ruling.
From all indications, Baptist High School, Iwo, has become the ground zero for religious fundamentalism. The ugly scenario that played out there last Tuesday, shows how children have unknowingly become the hapless puppets of the intemperance of interest groups. This is a shame! Children, who are supposed to be the leaders of tomorrow, are now being exposed to religious bigotry and initiated into the ignoble class of social miscreants. Although people are generally free to wear what they want in their public and private stations, at the level of public institutions including schools, there have always been, and should always be uniformity in the dress code. Schools in Osun should not be an exception.
Beyond the purpose of identity, the school uniform suggests discipline and conformity. By its use, students learn the values of love, friendship and loyalty amongst those who wear the school uniform. Thus, as the term suggests, the school uniform is a symbol of uniformity. Any other attire, religious or otherwise, cannot in any way serve this purpose, especially as the basis for association in a public school setting does not rest on any religious affiliation. Therefore, to insist that religious attires be given consideration in the dress codes of state and public institutions is an argument towards absurdity. What it means is that any form of religious paraphernalia could be incorporated into any kind of uniform. In other words, the army, the police and other law enforcement agencies, as well as state institutions identified by a uniform, could alter their dress code to reflect their faith. This is beyond absurdity!
Surely, Gov. Aregbesola has never minced words about the height he wants his effervescent political idealism to take Osun to. A devout Muslim, who greatly admires the egalitarian structure of socialism, Aregbesola desires to turn Osun into the cultural haven and socio-economic hub of the Yoruba, if not the entire country. The starting point for him seems to be education; which probably explains his effort to radically transform the educational sector by overhauling schools and modernizing infrastructure. However, as idealistic as his ambition is, it was a political miscalculation and grave error on his part, in the first place, to merge religious schools; as he failed to foresee the backlash of such a policy, especially the uniform crisis that is now playing itself out.
The government and people of Osun must bear in mind that the grundnorm of state conduct in the Federal Republic of Nigeria is secularity, in the most harmless sense of the word. Devoid of its religious connotation, secularism entails neutrality on matters of personal differences relative to state affairs. Consequently, the Osun government should not conduct itself in a way that transgresses this neutrality by paying such close attention to religion. The government should enforce what it started when it came up with a uniform specification for all secondary schools; and keep the hijab out of campus.
Moreover, it must also be inculcated into citizens that the tolerant society, which the government says it desires for its people, is built on mutual respect of each other’s religion. Before now the level of cohabitation amongst the adherents of the three main religions of Christianity, Islam and traditional African faith in Osun has been cordial and peaceful. Despite the fact that Osun State is the capital of the Yoruba traditional religion, Christianity and Islam sit well in the heart and mind of its people and are firmly rooted in their consciousness. There must be no place for those who desire to use religion for political purposes. The consequences of such a dangerous trend are too dire to contemplate.
On this fact, the Osun government should not display any form of tacit acquiescence by being silent on the crisis. The government must call the pupils to order and, working through the security agencies; expose the unseen hands, who are fanning the embers of religious bigotry in Osun. Conscious of this situation, the governor should not only portray himself in stately neutrality, but he must be seen to be doing so, both in his public comportment and even in his private thinking.
