Hijab: Churches In Showdown With Kwara Gov, Shun Directive To Reopen Schools

The face-off between the Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq-led Kwara State government and churches in charge of missionary schools in the state appears to be going downhill rather than abating.

This comes as the churches have flagrantly disregarded the state government’s directive to reopen the schools which were shut down over the state government’s policy permitting Muslim schoolgirls to wear Hijab to classrooms.

The Kwara State Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) had on Thursday warned the Christian missionary schools to reopen or face sanctions.

“…any staff that failed to report to their duty would face the full wrath of the law as the government will not condone any act of insubordination,” warned TESCOM chairman, Bello Abubakar.

Only one of the schools (Baptist Secondary School, Surulere) was accessible to the teachers on Friday, reports Premium Times. The entrance was said to have been vandalized when some Muslim and Christian faithful engaged in a violent clash on Wednesday.

It was gathered that the gates of some of the schools were later forced open by security officials.

THE WHISTLER recalls that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) had earlier faulted Governor AbdulRazaq for giving the Muslim schoolgirls the go ahead to attend classes with their Hijabs in disregard to a pending lawsuit on the matter.

CAN had also asked the Federal Government to hold the governor responsible for Wednesday’s violent clash between Muslims and Christians in the state over the Hijab controversy.

Joseph Bade Daramola, general secretary of the Christian body, said in a statement that Governor AbdulRazaq should be blamed if the violence should degenerate, “because it was his pronouncement on the issue of hijab wearing in violation of the court directive on the matter to maintain status quo until the matter is finally resolved by the court that led to this trouble.”

Daramola said, “It is disheartening and unfortunate that a government that was installed democratically will become insensitive to the plight and the yearning of the people as if the governor was voted into the office primarily to protect his own religion. This is unfair, ungodly and reprehensible.”