Ondo Muslims kick against return of schools to missionaries

Threaten to sue govt, fault moral grounds
The Muslim community in Ondo State has kicked against the move by Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu to return schools to missionaries, describing it as a means to oppress it.

The governor had last month announced the return of St. Thomas Aquinas College, St. Louis Girls Grammar School, Akure and two primary schools to the missionaries, while receiving the newly-inaugurated executives of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Ondo State Chapter.

The Muslims, under the auspices of Association of League of Imams and Alfas in Ondo State, while addressing journalists in Akure, said the decision was to intimidate the Islamic religion.

Chairman of the association, Sheikh Ahmad Aladesawe, therefore, threatened to take legal action against the state government, if it fails to rescind its decision.

He lamented that the return of schools to Christian missionaries is tantamount to sliding into the dark period in the history of educational development in the country.

According to him, the educational institutions were used as tools in the hands of religious bigots for forceful conversion and intimidation of the masses.

Aladesawe, who was represented by Secretary of the association and Chief Imam of Supare-Akoko, Alhaji Abdulrasheed Akerele, said the move would work against the Federal Government’s policy on education.

He bemoaned that it would also disrupt the educational policies of prominent international bodies with stakes in educational development of the nation at large and Ondo State in particular.

“Ondo State government, for the sake of posterity, the unborn generation, the development of the state and even for the sake of the traumatised and impoverished masses, should not return schools to the Faith-Based Organisations (FBOs) under any banner or guise,” he said.

“This is because of its daring consequences as more children will be thrown out of schools because their parents would definitely not be able to afford the fees that will imposed by such organisations.

“As of now, more than 80 per cent of the students on enrolment are on the register of the public schools and their parents are at the mercy of the government to provide qualitative and affordable education for their children.

“What will be the plight of such parents and their children, considering the fact that more than 70 per cent of Nigerians are living below the poverty line?” he stated.

He punctured the moral grounds put forward as excuse to return the schools, saying: “Most of the faith-based institutions are today infested with moral decadence, pedophilia, incest, drug abuse and addiction, cultism, lesbianism, sodomy and others.

The cleric, who urged the state government to build more schools, improve on the existing educational infrastructure, improve on the educational personnel, especially teaching staff, as well as provide adequate teaching and instructional materials, also appealed to all well-meaning Ondo State indigenes, as well as all bodies, unions and organisations passionate about the posterity of the children, to join in the campaign against the ‘dangerous tide.’