Re: Hijab In A Country Prone To Religious Mutual Suspicions -By Abdulkadir Salaudeen

“Nigeria should actually be considering how to fully ban hijab and not to further promote it in times such as this. They should take a leaf from the listed countries” – Adesanya-Davies

• Nigerian police women are now allowed (optionally) to don their hijabs while on duty in uniform
• Nigeria has moved to sixth in the latest Global Terrorism Index (GTI)
• A list of countries that banned burqa or hijab

As Nigerian police women are now allowed (optionally) to don their hijabs while on duty in uniform; the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, who introduced the new dress code has been lambasted and eulogized by haters and lovers of hijab respectively. There is nothing shocking about the mixed reactions. It is the norm and much expected in a country of exaggerated religious mutual suspicions.

It seems to be a settled case in Nigeria that once a president is a Muslim, the vice must be a Christian and vice versa. Not only that, president or vice president, the Muslim ought to come from the North while the Christian from the South. Funny although, this convention—which we conscientiously adhere to—is not provided for in the Nigerian Constitution but more sacrosanct than the Constitution itself and all its provisions.

Let’s overlook the regimes before 1999 for convenience of analysis. Since 1999, we have had both Christians and Muslims as presidents and vice presidents; their poor performances weighed heavier on the scale. That is if we assumed that anything good can be attributed to their performances.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen recalls, as published by Usman Alkali Baba, in Opinion Nigeria on March 10, 2022, that “To counter Obasanjo’s imagined or “real Christianization agenda,” the North came up with the Shari’ah. The sincerity or otherwise of the Shari’ah’s implementation can be best analysed from what Zamfara is today—the pioneer.

Futher, “Late President Yar’adua’s regime was not much tagged with religion agenda perhaps because it was short-lived. The honourable gentleman, in my assessment, is a great lost to Nigeria (may God have mercy on him). He would have brought the expected change to Nigeria. The change which had already begun with him. In acknowledgement of the flawed electoral system through which he rode to power, he embarked on electoral reform rigourously and earnestly. But now we have a regime with a hyped change mantra which never begins with it.

The former President, Jonathan, was said to have inherited a residue of Yar’adua’s and added a four-year tenure to it. His regime also suffered a serious allegation of Christianization agenda. Some important policy announcements were even said to be made to the Nigerian public in churches. There was a serious gang up against his regime which cost him his re-election bid. He made a history for being the first ousted incumbent President in Nigeria. As if bad governance is on a degenerating continuum in Nigeria, Jonathan’s was adjudged by many as retrogressing from bad to worse—from frying pan to fire.

Then President Buhari came on board. He was and is still widely believed to be a ‘Shari’ah man’ by the Nigerian non-Muslims. This, in some account, has cost him three consecutive election bids. Even though I have never seen any element of Shari’ah in the man, I believe everyone is entitled to their opinions. But because Jonathan’s regime was seen as an evil that must be discarded, there was a wide embrace of the so-called Shari’ah man. His religiosity was ignored just to give Jonathan or its regime the blow of its life. His Shariatization was paired, and at the same time countered, by a Pentecostal pastor. Pastor Osinbajo was to be his vice and, more importantly, his watchdog.

Buhari’s regime has suffered more allegations of religionization than the combination of Obasanjo’s and Jonathan’s. In Buhari’s case, added to Islamization, is also Fulanization. The by-product of these combinations is blended as Fulasmization. May be these allegations are true or false, the combination of ‘Shari’ah’ compliant president and his, no doubt, Pentecostal vice has unleashed an unprecedentedly untold hardship on the Nigerian masses.

Like a continuum, it was worse under Jonathan, now worst. Then it was from frying pan to fire, but now from fire to Hell. I just hope we have reached the extreme edge of the vicious continuum for I don’t where again after Hell. The point is: neither Christian or Muslim leader is the problem; rather it is bad leadership and dirty politics.

Back to the issue of police hijab, contrarily to the claim of Abdulkadir Salaudeen, that, “he cannot fathom how ‘police women donning their hijabs while on duty’ is aimed at Islamization or how it will lead to it”. It’s not belated an introduction but rather a flowed development in a secular state.

If we really have true democrats in Nigeria, the use of hijab by police women while on duty wouldn’t be as issue. It’s an understatement that it should cause headache to any democrat or any Nigerian who understands what democracy stands for and the freedom of religion enshrined in it which must never fling to any extreme. This terrain in Nigeria is usually very difficult to tackle. What about the issue of hijab wear in law school, SUKUK none interest Islamic banking for fixing Nigerin roads and products to be shared, joining OIC and all sorts. The unborn generations of those sowing the seeds shall certainly reap the harvests one day!

Agreed that, “The hijab cannot serve as bullet proof, it will not sanitize the police as an institution, it will not make the police more effective in its operation, this is true. So what is the use of hijab after all if not to acculturate, dominate, arabize, fulanize and Islamize Nigeria in a BIG WAY! I was once in an hospital to visit a patient in Ilorin Kwara state where all the nurses were donned in hijab, specifically “black hijabs’, and I had wondered to what end is this madness? Is it to make the patients fearful or “induce their fast recovery’!

For those other non-Muslim dominated countries, where female police officers use hijabs, as in Australia, Canada, Sweden, UK, USA etc, as claimed and there is no noise of Islamization yet, it’s because they haven’t wised up like Nigerians to know it’s a grand style of domination by the Arab world in their own environment and subjugation plus Islamization. They may rather wake up to its realization when it’s too late someday.

However, you may care to explore this link, to know some as well have wisen up. No one wants religious radicalism, crime, violence, anti-social behaviour etc, to persist in their countries or even for their country to be over ran and taken away from them all in the name of any religion at all: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/sudan-ends-30-years-of-islamic-law-by-separating-religion-state/articleshow/77976896.cms

I could recall sometime ago, I read an article titled,
“When Ignorance Is Not Bliss: A must Read!” It reads in part:

“Thanks for your request to give you a copy of the Federal Ministry of education 9 year basic education curriculum on “Religion and National Values” book.
The book was a product of the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council ( NERDC), a parastatal, under the Ministry of Education.

The issues with the curriculum

1. On pages 17 and 46 of the “Religion and National Values” curriculum for Primary one to three (Primary 1-3) are statements that are not only inciting but derogatory to a particular religious belief and faith (Christianity).

Specifically

a) On page 17 under Theme Islamic studies and Sub theme Sarah and Tahdib
Primary 1 to 3 pupils in their formative years are taught
the Supremacy of Prophet Mohammed and the Quran over all others.

That Mohammed was the seal of all the Prophets, sent to the whole world and Quran the final guidance of Allah to mankind.

b) In page 46 of the same book produced with tax payers money who include Muslims and non Muslims

That Prophet Isa known to Christians as Jesus Christ is not the son of God
That Jesus was not crucified.
What a blasphemy.

The implications are the creation of a sense of supremacy of Islam over other faiths and completely denigrating Christianity.

If this has been restricted to Muslims alone, that could have been excused, but putting it in a curriculum for all is provocative and insulting.

The Nigeria Christian Graduate Fellowship and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) took this matter up with the executive director of NERDC and his team in Abuja, with the recommendations that, The offending statements should be expunged from the curriculum and this was done and the complainant positively addressed.

According to the author of the article, the main problem is, “the plot of the Muslim community in Nigeria, which speaks for itself and is shamelessly deplorable: to plant disrespect and CONTEMPT for Christ in the hearts our of impressionable infants by painting Christ as an inferior spiritual being to their Mohammed.

And to in the process set on fire the hearts of the Christian community in Nigeria. We are still recovering from the scourge of Boko Haram. We are presently neck-deep in the raping, killing adventures of Islamic terrorist, banditry, killer herdsmen.

Yet here they come with a new calamity: Educational Curricular Terrorism (ECT) by the elite front of Boko Haram who find themselves in academic authority. In this front, they are using Islamic Jihad agents in the Muslim designed and dominated Nigerian Educational Research & Development Council (NERDC). Shall their appetites for crises have no end? When shall Muslims’ warehouse of conflicts and crises and the thirst for conflagration end? I mean, those among them who are guilty and hate peaceful coexistence?”

Ironically, this promotion and celebration of hijab is going on as school uniforms and police wears in Nigeria, at a period when we read news headlines such as, “President Buhari – Hijab May Be Banned”.

It would be recalled that, in
31 December, 2015, in This Day, President Muhammadu Buhari has said that” his government may ban the use of hijabs by Muslim women, if the suicide bombings continue without end, adding that it has no cogent intelligence on the fate of the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram almost two years.

Buhari admitted as much yesterday during his maiden presidential media chat broadcast live from the State House in Abuja. Despite the absence of intelligence, he said government was still making efforts to rescue the Chibok girls and would be willing to negotiate their release, but would want to make sure they are negotiating with credible leaders of the Boko Haram terror group.

According to him, “We are keeping our options open with Boko Haram on the Chibok girls on the condition that they can guarantee that the girls are safe and alive.” So what has changed! From Boko Haram to ISWAP, Jihadists to Bandits and what more. Check out Nigeria terrism index: Nigeria moved to sixth in the latest Global Terrorism Index (GTI) of the world. https://guardian.ng/news/nigeria-improve-by-two-places-on-global-terrorism-index/

So far so good, here’s a list of countries that banned burqa or hijab:

France
The burqa was banned in public for the first time in Europe when France did so. It all began in 2004 with a ban on students wearing religious symbols in state-run institutions. However, in April 2011, the government took a step further and made full-face veils illegal in public. For violating the restriction, women may face fines of up to 150 euros as well as citizenship instructions. Whereas, a 30,000 euro fine awaits anyone who forces a lady to cover her face.

Belgium
In 2011, Belgium followed France’s lead and implemented bans on full-face-covering clothing such as the burqa or the hijab. The act prohibited the wearing of clothes that conceals the wearer’s identity in public areas. Breaking the law can result in a fine or up to seven days in prison.

Bulgaria
In the aftermath of Islamist extremist attacks in Europe, Bulgaria’s parliament outlawed face veils in public in 2016. The nationalist Patriotic Front coalition’s “burqa ban” law replicates similar measures taken in other Western European countries.

Denmark
Denmark joined other European countries in prohibiting face-covering clothing, including Islamic veils like the hijab and burqa, in 2018.

Switzerland
In March 2021, Switzerland became one of the European countries to outlaw burqas. After slightly over 51 per cent of Swiss voters voted in favour of the prohibition, it was implemented.

Netherlands
In the Netherlands, a prohibition on all full-face coverings, including some forms of Muslim attire, went into effect in 2019. The implementation of the ‘Burqa Ban’ took the Dutch government fourteen years. It was first enacted by a majority in the Lower House in 2005, but it did not pass constitutional challenges.

Austria
Face coverings have been illegal in Austria since 2017 when the Law Against Wearing Face Veils was passed. The law mandates that persons reveal their entire face, from chin to hairline. Violations can result in a fine of up to 150 euros.

Chad
Since two suicide bomb bombings in June 2015, women in Chad have been prohibited from wearing a complete veil. The prime minister, Kalzeube Pahimi Deubet, described it as “camouflage” and declared that all burqas on the market would be burned. People who wear them may be arrested and sentenced to prison. So far, Chad is the only Muslim-majority country to criminalise religious face veils.

Republic of Congo
The Republic of the Congo, often known as Congo-Brazzaville, became the first African government to outlaw the burqa in May 2015. In Congo-Brazzaville, Muslims account for less than 5 per cent of the population.

Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka’s Cabinet approved a proposed ban on wearing full-face veils in public, including burqas, in April 2021, claiming national security reasons. Burqas were briefly outlawed in 2019 after more than 250 people were killed in suicide bombings on Easter Sunday.

Nigeria should actually be considering how to fully ban hijab and not to further promote it in times such as this. They should take a leaf from the listed countries.

Hope Nigerians gets it right one day with an ADVANCED RESTRUCTURING AGENDA.