The adamant posture of four governors of Bauchi, Katsina, Kebbi, and Kano states, and their failure to rescind their decision to close schools for the just-concluded Ramadan fasting certainly has set back the educational progress of the pupils. This is needless, considering that many of the pupils are underage and most probably did not fast as strictly enjoined in the Holy Quran.
Although, Muslims are required to engage in lifestyle suitable and commensurate for the observance of fasting during Ramadan, Islam does not require adherents to completely alter their work routine or educational pursuits during Ramadan, the teaching of which in fact, is for Muslims to abstain from food and drinks even while going about their normal duties.
It is indeed unfortunate that the governors stood their ground at the expense of the pupils, despite the many calls on them to rescind their decision to shut educational institutions for religious considerations in their respective jurisdictions for over a month.
Thoughtful citizens, including Muslims, had hoped that the governors would, as in most Islamic countries, at least adjust the school time to accommodate the wishes of the authorities. Former primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Archbishop Nicholas Okoh rightly argued that even ‘nations like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates where Islam is central and Ramadan deeply revered do not shut down schools for the entire fasting period. Alas, reason did not prevail in this matter.
The consequence was that for about a month, pupils and students in basic schools were denied the precious opportunity to study and keep pace with their counterparts in other parts of the country. Notably, the other children at school during the Ramadan period are in regions of the country that are already educationally ahead of these states. The gap can only widen if governors will adopt the attitude to deny young people the fair and just right to education as and when due.
As far back as July 1980, Chief Obafemi Awolowo had cause to worry that ‘the educational gap between the Western States and the Northern States is too wide for comfort…it would be criminal for anyone who has the power and the means to close it, to allow it to widen further’.
If public schools can be shut down for religious observance, the entire machinery of government may, in future, be shut down for the same reason. Furthermore, if on the whim of a governor, private schools can be summarily closed without consulting their proprietors, it is not a distant possibility that private businesses can suffer the same fate someday. This, indeed, is a frightening possibility in a democracy. Eze Onyekpere of the Centre for Social Justice rightly describes the forced closure as antithetical to common sense and an infringement on the rights of others.
The closure decision would have been less insensitive had the governments concerned consulted key stakeholders in the education sector, such as the Parents Teachers Association (PTA), the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). Dr. Aminu Usman, who heads the Hisbah Board in Kano State, is reported to have even threatened private schools if they did not obey the order to shut down.
Section 10 of the extant Constitution declares unequivocally that ‘The Government of the Federation or a State shall not adopt any religion as State Religion.’ This clear separation of State from religion denies, we should think, any government the use of its powers to force obedience on any citizens except on his or her volition, contrary to the stand of MURIC spokesman, Ishaq Akintola that the decision to close schools is completely a Muslim issue.
Ordinarily, the governments of Kebbi, Katsina, and other states should be at the forefront of ensuring that schools run regularly, efficiently, and effectively for the obvious reasons that they consistently are mentioned in the not-too-noble list of educationally disadvantaged jurisdictions.
They simply have a lot of catching up to do – at national and global levels. Press reports indicate that by UNESCO calculations, Kebbi, Kano, Katsina, and Bauchi states have the highest percentages of out-of-school children among the 18.3 million in the country. Northern candidates for exams into secondary and tertiary public institutions are undeservedly conceded entry scores lower than those of their colleagues in other parts of the country.
This is not respectable at all. It is to say that the beneficiaries are incapable of competing fair and square with their peers elsewhere. But it cannot be true. If properly motivated, guided and challenged, all states, including those in the North, are evidentially full of brilliant and competent people, young and old. It is even dangerous to lower standards to accommodate the less than capable because, in the competitive global environment, the country’s collective development and progress will correspondingly suffer.
The governments of these four states and other states in the North are reminded that Section 14 (2)(b) imposes upon them the duty to ensure the ‘security and welfare of [their] people’. This overarching provision includes in Section 18 ‘that Government shall direct its policy towards ensuring that there are equal and adequate educational opportunities at all levels. Moreover, the affected children are mostly those whose parents have no access, like their rulers, to the humongous resources to send their children abroad for uninterrupted, seamless education.
Arbitrary closure of schools for reasons of religion is only one more example of the anti-education values that pervade Nigeria’s political class –North and South. Professor Tunji Olaopa, chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission, has lately written on the ‘government’s anti-intellectual posture’ that has damaging consequences on government effectiveness. He noted that ‘this state of affair [results in] the failure to ground the framework and protocols of [governments’] policymaking practices on economic and statistical rationalities’.
Since 1999, federal and state allocation to the education sector in their annual budgets rarely hit – talk less of exceed- the UNESCO recommended 15-26 per cent and even more preferably 4-6 per cent of national GDP. The National Policy on Education (NPE) 2013 in Section 155 requires that ‘at least 26 per cent …of the Federal, States, and Local Governments budgets should be dedicated to funding education at all levels’. Even the Federal Government is in breach of its own documented policy. The 2025 budget allocates less than 10 per cent to the education sector.
Sadly, these practices are legion and age-old. A hostile attitude to education is characteristic of people who would rather rule than lead and govern. It is a ‘feudalism-centred’ mindset that seeks to keep the majority in servitude and reserve the best of all things for themselves. It is a pity that governors in the North and elsewhere will take measures that lend credence to this line of thought.
