The chickens Rauf Aregbesola hatched are coming home to roost. Osun, the famed State of the Living Spring, where he has been governor for six years, is in the news for awfully wrong reasons. Where you once had a refuge of shared values, harmony and brotherliness, segments of the population are now pitted against one another in mutually hostile camps over religious garments in public schools. With impressionable children as pawns, the conflict could snowball with consequences that the instigators cannot predict.
The drama is still on. Triggered by a quirky decision by an Osogbo High Court judge, that wearing hijab to public primary and secondary schools is a constitutional right for female Muslim pupils, some Christian pupils have also decided to enjoy those rights by wearing ceremonial religious robes to classes. The judgement was the outcome of a suit filed three years ago by Muslim groups in response to the refusal of school heads to allow some pupils wear hijab, insisting that all students, irrespective of faith, should wear only the approved school uniforms.
We hold Aregbesola primarily responsible for the trajectory of events that have culminated in the recent absurdity that is casting a proud, resourceful and principled people in a poor light. The sinister hand of the administration is revealed in the ruling of the judge that students should wear the hijab “in the colour” prescribed by the state government. Contrary to his current protestations, Aregbesola is seen as an interested party that had shown his hand as a man with a religious agenda since he became governor. It is absurd for a secular government to be prescribing colour or any other detail for religious apparel in public schools. And what happens to adherents of other faiths with conspicuous religious symbols, including bracelets and turbans by Sikhs and skull-caps by Jews? This is a legitimate concern.
Since the crisis began, state officials have been giving lame excuses while bigots are crawling out of the woodwork to stoke the fire of conflict instead of dousing the tension. A report cites threats to peace by the Muslim Students Society over the turning back of hijab-wearing students at the Christ African Middle School, Osogbo, doused only by the timely intervention of the Osun State Muslim Community. Some Christian groups were equally said to be gearing for confrontation. What is Osun turning into?
It is not too late to reverse the insipid sectarianism in this South-Western state, a region whose people are famed for their religious inclusiveness and tolerance that guarantee every family having members of diverse faiths. As early as 2012, this newspaper had warned against the creeping religiosity in Osun after the governor unwisely declared a public holiday to mark the beginning of the Islamic New Year, what many openly Islamic states shun, and how it could snowball into contentious sectarian rivalry. Soon enough, Aregbesola was obliged to declare an Isese Day, a morsel thrown to traditional religion adherents.
Not done, he went ahead to plan to build an Open Heaven Worship Centre as an inter-denominational Christian centre and again, in January 2014, The PUNCH strongly called for a halt to this misuse of religion and misplacement of priorities. Instead, the governor frittered energy and goodwill by becoming a polarising figure in a state that was doing better than most states in socio-economic indices and is blessed with a well-educated and industrious population. Today’s hoopla is a crisis foretold: we said on November 20, 2012 that “it is disastrous to structure public life in such a way as to encourage people to organise around their ethnic or religious identities. Such purely sentimental actions are key factors in the rise of religious intolerance elsewhere and in this country.” On January 21, 2014, we also wrote that “it is dangerous for governments to dabble in religion because of its tendency to create caustic division in the society.”
We insist again that religious particularism should have no place in public primary and secondary schools. A uniform not only breeds group identification and solidarity, but also fosters lifelong friendships among impressionable youths. It is unfair to sow division among tomorrow’s leaders by manipulating religious sentiment. Neither hijab nor any robe of any faith has a place in public schools. The separation of religion from politics should form the foundation of any pluralistic society. A uniform implies sameness and the public school must be a leveller. This is a sure guarantee of the rights and equality of all religions and not an attack on the principle or practice of any faith.
Opinion leaders in the state should shake off their dangerous lethargy and move to douse this danger. Over 11,000 people have died in sectarian conflict in Kaduna and Plateau states since 2000, according to Human Rights Watch. Kaduna and Jos, once famed “melting pots” of inter-ethnic and inter-faith mingling, have, like Beirut city, become agglomerates of antagonistic sectarian enclaves, reflecting a divided Lebanon. This streak of killings is a reflection of unresolved problem of religion and state.
Osun should tread the path of caution and outlaw religious apparel in schools, first by appealing the judgement and, thereafter, brokering a ceasefire with sincerity. The best way to produce a profound and lasting solution is for the government to return religion-affiliated and other schools taken over by military fiat to original owners who so desire and demonstrate capacity to run them. Lagos has, since 2001, been returning scores of schools to the original owners willing and able to run them. Ogun, Imo, Delta and Plateau states have followed. Anambra restored 1,040 primary schools to the missions as well as many secondary schools. Instead of an untidy “mega schools” project, Osun should return schools like Oyo, which is set to return 31 such schools.
The strength of every developed society is human capital, not religion. What is happening in the state is not a reflection of who the Osun people are; all stakeholders should rise today and restore its glory.
