Reverend Victor Dada, the President of Kwara Baptist Conference, has described the Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq-led Kwara State government has “government of the Muslim, by the Muslim and for the Muslim.”
Dada, who was commenting on the clash between Christians and Muslims at Baptist Secondary School, Ilorin, the state capital, added that AbdulRazaq’s administration and Muslims in the state should not take the gentleness of Christians for weakness.
Recall that Christians and Muslims had clashed at the school over a controversy bordering on the use of hijab by Muslim students in Christian schools in the state. The school, which was one of the 10 closed by the state government in February over the hijab controversy, was reopened on Wednesday following a government directive on Tuesday. In the reopening announcement, the schools were told to respect government policy that allows the use of the hijab in all public schools.
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Human Capital Development, Kemi Adeosun, who announced the reopening on Tuesday night, said the government policy that allows “willing Muslim schoolgirls to wear their hijab in public schools will lead to sustainable peace and communal harmony anchored on mutual respect and understanding.”
But on the first day of reopening, Christian parents at the school barred female Muslim students from entering the school. Their actions led to a clash and the throwing of objects, including stones and plastic chairs, at themselves.
Some of the people were injured before security agents arrived to disperse the fighters.
However, Dada said no amount of pressure will make the schools allow the use of hijabs, adding that their schools are grant-aided and not public schools.
According to him, the last 15 years have seen the government employing Islamic religious teachers in schools, while teachers for Christian Religious Knowledge are not employed.
“It is surprising that the government has become a government of the Muslim, by the Muslim and for the Muslim in his (state governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq) policies, pronouncements and attitude,” the statement added.
He said that at no time has any government designed uniform for schools ever since the grant aiding policy started in 1974.
“This has always been the responsibility of the proprietors, be it community or mission,” he added.
“The Muslims and the government should not take our gentleness for weakness.
“We shall not allow the use of hijab in our schools. We will defend our faith and defend our inheritance. We demand that the government should return our schools.”
