Politics & Governance: Hijab Fight Is A Lousy Distraction, Demand Good Governance Instead – Seyi Oyetunbi | GOVERNMEND
Karl Marx wouldn’t have painted it any better without his famous assertion: “religion is an opium of the masses.” Masses would only murmur for their fair share of the state’s wealth. Yet, would have heads hanged on sticks over religion and religious claims. We have to make a choice between dividing ourselves on religious ground and uniting ourselves to hold our leaders accountable over things that have to do with good life.
The hijab crisis that stroke Kwara state few days ago is a common distraction set to divide the masses, build up an avoidable tension that would push off pressing issues from the scale of preference for the irresponsible leaders to take a pew and enjoy the drama of the literary mad man chasing the wind.
Surprisingly, an underperforming government of Kwara state saw the need to formulate a divisive policy, leaving school children with the archaic mindset that a Muslim child and a Christian child have a fight to pick over how their appearance should be, religiously. While the entire Kwara education sector is in a state of moribound.
Public school teachers in Kwara state are poorly paid, the ex governor allegedly refused to pay about 7months salaries, the classrooms are dilapidated, education ministry is largely underfunded. While many countries of the world are putting their offsprings on the path of innovation and technology, we have myopic leaders creating division by prioritising religion. It makes sense if they’re doing well with the religion, this group of failed leaders, hijab and Christian faith show promoters have raised the bar of corruption and normalise stealing from the masses.
The hijab crisis is an embarrassment that could have been avoided. If any child chooses to use hijab, no school should forbid it as much as Nigeria is secular. Save the energy of the hijab crisis for holding the state and federal government responsible for good governance.
There’s only one religion and that’s humanity and we only have two tribes: the rich and the poor. We should do away with unproductive agitation and feed our focus for making sure the country and individual state function at an optimal level.
Copyright: GOVERNMEND NG
