A clampdown on 10 schools by the Kwara State Government flared up the brouhaha. To-wear-or-not-to-wear hijab in Christian schools was the crux. The state government directed that all Christian schools must be tolerant of hijab-wearing Muslim students. Its move was hinged on a mid-1970s government decree which entrenched it in the spines of the law that all schools be taken over by the government. Christians were livid that their sacred places were being defiled by hijab-wearing folks. The same state government chanting religious tolerance has reportedly compelled Christian students to wear hijab in Islamic schools against the tenets of their faith. Why must Christians be forced to wear hijab, they asked? Cries of religious repression bawled out from Christians who felt repressed by the majority Muslim government apparatchiks. Government people kept mum for weeks. They knew they had been caught pants down playing favouritism. In the aftermath of the hijab enforcement drama, tension tore through the city of Ilorin. Police deployed some tear gas to disperse these fighters over hijab.
Fracas about religion has become commonplace in a nation where 110 million people are still considered poor. Nigerians breathe and live religion. It is the oxygen for zealots. According to the words of the German philosopher, Karl Marx, ‘Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.’ But don’t we all have free choices of what and who to believe? This is the problem with religious zealotry in Nigeria. There is nothing wrong with religion as long as it is mollifying and soothing to the individual soul. But there are just too many things wrong with people in religion.
Kwara is one of the states in northern Nigeria. It has a population of close to two million people and a total landmass of 3,682,500 hectares with the majority living in rural areas. Like many states in Nigeria, poverty, hunger, squalour, and decadence rule Kwara. The educational sector in the state is rattled by poor funding, poor educational infrastructure, overcrowding, inadequate classrooms, and a poor and polluted learning environment. Although the state is touted as a relatively peaceful territory, in Kwara are some dangerous flashpoints for kidnapping and brutal murder of innocent citizens. In spite of bastions of behemoth challenges besieging the state in particular, the people of Ilorin chose not to picket against many blatant malfeasances of the government in the area of corruption with men in power and authority. They chose not to protest against decadent road networks that have become death traps all over the state. They chose not to rail against bandits and banditry but decided to pick a fight with fellow citizens over a silly reason like the hijab face-covering. What an absurdity.
François-Marie Arouet, a 1700 French satirical polemicist, wrote these words that easily came to mind as I was just thinking about religious turbulence in Nigeria. Arouet wrote in his tome: ‘Questions sur les miracles’ (1765). “Certainly, those who make you believe absurdities will make you commit atrocities”. Those who have successfully led the poor and gullible to fight senseless battles about religion are men with means and money. They sit in the comfort of their homes and faith palaces spewing our garbage to hopeless, hapless, and unemployed Nigerians who fall easy prey to false instructions to kill others on behalf of their god. It is absurdity in its vilest form to brainwash people to fight and kill for some god. It is even more absurd to surrender to indoctrination.
Americans are rolling out a fleet of vaccines to keep humans from being snuffed out of life by deadly diseases. They are putting money in people’s pockets to keep hope alive and stimulate the economy ravaged by the pandemic. Around the world, men in nations are holding colloquies rolling out revolutionary technological innovations; and Artificial Intelligence is making what was once impossible possible in healthcare delivery. China’s ministry of education just officially estimated that a total of 9.09 million Chinese will graduate from universities and stream into the job market in 2021. It is an increase of about 350,000 graduates from a record high of 8.74 million in 2020. In Nigeria, there is almost 70% youth unemployment atrophying the muscles of the economy. Yet, there is an unending mud-wrestling over hijab and religion.
Two decades ago, some recently invented technological devices sounded like science fiction. Today, there is an unlocking of the world’s most complex operating system which is the human body. A pacemaker the size of a large vitamin has hit the market. It listens as blood flows from the heart’s upper chamber to the lower chamber. When it detects the correct vibration, the tiny, wireless device sends an electronic signal to the lower chamber to sync it with the upper chamber, keeping the heart beating as it should. Men with money, means, and wisdom are joining in making healthcare more efficient, accessible, and equitable, and distinctly digital around the world. The fixation in Nigeria is on religion and hijab.
Technology is currently transforming healthcare at an unprecedented rate. Our ability to capture data from wearable devices such as smartwatches will give us the ability to increasingly predict and treat health issues in people even before they experience any symptoms. While all of these are going on in our global orbit, in Nigeria, who is encouraging young people to be creative to make something? Instead, we have some religious and political bigwigs urging their acolytes to haggle over religion.
The world is in the midst of the 4th Industrial Revolution, and technology is evolving faster than ever. Autonomous vehicles that will make our journeys less strenuous are now being rolled out. But Nigerians are squabbling over religion that has made a few people rich and impoverished many. If you don’t know the meaning of backward thinking and slavery mentality, this is it. With the enormous resources and a slew of geniuses that Nigeria has produced home and abroad, the world looks at us as people with misplaced priorities. We are now a laughing stock because we fight over mundane things like hijab and religion that add no scintilla of value to a nation intending to go to space someday, or develop a vaccine someday, or even make a bicycle. And did you hear that there is a bill currently at the House of Representatives on hijab of all things? And this while Nigerians have no water to drink nor can sleep with their eyes closed because of fear of rampaging killers. Our choice comestible is religion. This is sour, my friends. The Giant of Africa is in a slumber. Who will rouse her from this deep sleep of death?
Credit: Fola Ojo, Punch