NOW, EXPECTEDLY, AND ARISING FROM FIRDAOS AMASA THE BRAVE GIRL, ISSUES ARE BEGINNING TO ARISE ONE AFTER THE OTHER.
WELCOME TO OAU, IFE.
Background:
Our dear father in OAU, Professor Durosinmi of the Hematology Department, OAU, posted the NSCIA Press Release on the ASUU WhatsApp page two days ago, and members started insulting him as posting religious material on a page meant for union matters, whereas there have been several xtian postings including prayers, preachings and Christmas Carol and the Trump Speech wishing Americans a merry Xmas and new year on the same ASUU page. None of us criticised them.
HAPPY READING.
My dear colleagues, the comments on my posting of Tuesday, 20 have been very revealing and very entertaining. Regrettably however, some of them, with due respect, would suggest that we have lost our cherished ethical, spiritual and moral values. The posting was placed on the platform in the first instance, because some elements in our University were part of the oppressors under review.
It was not to preaching to anybody, the plight of victims of injustice. The ASUU I joined in 1986 will fight injustice, with no reference to the religious beliefs of the victims.
I could not understand why people should be disturbed because a Muslim girl wears hijab, which Catholic women have always been using, in recognition of the practice of Mary, mother of Jesus(Peace on them both). I have never seen any picture of Mary (PBOH) without her veil, neither have I heard or read of any sane person asking a Catholic nun to take off her head wear in any public institution.
1. My first experience of the harassment of Muslim student on Hijab in our University was in 1990, when the then Miss Sururah Waheed was denied University Identity card because she was on hijab! As expected, her colleagues in MSSN gave full support with peaceful protests. The card was issued. The lady, now Dr. S. Bello, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in the department of Computer Sciences. Interestingly, Dr. Bello was employed along with two other ladies on hijab by the Most Revd (Prof) Adebayo D. Akinde (Rtd), when he was in the University. Prof. Akinde, the retired Bishop of a Cathedral Church in Lagos State. Dr. Bello was never asked to remove her hijab for the job. That was the type of ASUU I met.
2. With resolution of Dr. Bello's case, we thought OAU Muslim Students are now free from oppression, especially that the University COUNCIL approved Dress Code for all students in March, 2002 and our College accepted the code in February 2005, including the 'white shoulder length hijab' approved for Nurses by the Nursing council of Nigeria.
Unfortunately, in 2013, Six Hijab wearing Muslim female final year students were denied practical exposure at the SDA hospital, Ile-Ife for refusing to remove their head wears. and were unable to write the examination at the same time with their colleagues. Our intervention was not helpful, it was emotionally devastating to the students.
The following year in 2014, when examinations were held in the department for another set, students on hijab, Eight in all, were still prevented from writing their papers for the same ignoble reason. The students had to seek help of their parents and other organisations, the case was externalised , hell was let loose, various faith-based organisations devoped interest in the case, and security organisations invaded the university. The department gave in at last, but the university was thoroughly embarrassed.
Yet the lecturers perpetrating these evils are parents, do they not remember the Law of retributive justice?
3. Since 1997 or so, the University has directed all academic departments to make Friday Afternoon between 12 noon and 3pm free of all academic activities to allow Muslims observe Jumuah Service. The Time Table Committee was also directed to respect the sanctity of Fridays. However, many of our colleagues would still disregard the directive. Our students are regularly provoked when examinations are fixed for Friday afternoons. As early as August this year, a department in the Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences fixed examination for Friday, however, the Provost stopped the examination.
It is this gross indiscipline and disrespect for University Laws that continue to disturb some of us. Descent Academics are not to oppress their students, but protect them, as they would their on children.
4. Another note worthy Injustice against a Female Muslim Nurse was her dismissal by the National orthopaedic hospital Igbobi In April 2016 because she put on the Nursing Council Approved Hijab. She was reinstated 6 months later in October 2016 by the Industrial Court, but she had to at home for 1 year before the court-ordered recall ! However, the FMOH wrote just yesterday ordering management of the hospital to discontinue the court case and settle out of court and ensure she does not lose her seniority.
It is brazen injustice like this that generated the index post. Is this how to serve God?
5. Peaceful coexistence requires mutual respect among the parties, what some of us have been observing is that any time the Muslims wish to revert the Injustice forced on them by the colonial rulers, our non-Muslim fellow Nigerians put up tough resistance, forgetting that we are equal stakeholders to the survival of the system.
I could remember the response of a one time commissioner in Oyo State under Chief Bola Ige of blessed memory, late Chief Adewale Thompson, to the demand of the Muslim Judges that they be allowed to go to the central mosque instead of the church for the annual opening of the Legal year. Chief Thompson rejected the request because the tradition was to open the year in church and that 'Tradition never change!' The rest is history.
It was also the tradition for American Blacks to stand up and gave their seats to the American Whites until the nonconformist Rosa Park, a visionary Black lady decided to end the humiliating and dehumanising law.
6. In a badly governed country like ours, where impunity reigns supreme, people need to rescue themselves from oppressing tendencies. We need such nonconformists from time to time, otherwise the weak will always be disadvantaged.
7. The posting under reference is expressing the bitterness of a group to apparent Injustice being meted to their children, wards by fellow citizens, because they do not share the same faith. Our responsibility as Academics, is to study the essay and proffer solutions. If their complaints are not justly addressed, we are sitting on a keg of gun powder.
I noticed that none of the commentators disputed the facts stated in the protest post.
8. It is a shame that the two major religions in our country are the most unpatriotic. Our University is a typical example. That is why we are in this deplorable mess: we steal in the name of God, we cheat in the name of God, we exploit the weak in the name of God, we rig elections in the name of God, and we falsify census figures in the name of God.
9. Let us help our country by adhering to the fundamental tenets of our faiths as here quoted: Jesus (PBOH) says"Do to others as you would have them do to you, Luke 6: 31", while the Qur’an 5:8 says "...... and never let hatred of any one lead you into the sin of Deviating from Justice....."
You would not expect apologies from victims of injustice. Have a great Xmas.
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