BEVERLY HILLS, June 23, (THEWILL) – Despite the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu’s clarification that the Christian Religious Knowledge, CRK, has not been removed from secondary school curriculum, the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, on Thursday, demanded a return to the old curriculum on religious knowledge.
Stressing that it is not trying to cry wolves where none exists, the umbrella body of Christians in Nigeria warned the Federal Government against using propaganda to deceive Nigerians over such a sensitive matter because the unity of the country is at stake.
THEWILL had on Wednesday reported the Education Minister as saying, “the national council of education did accept and agreed that the teaching and learning of CRK has been made compulsory for all Christians students and teaching and learning of Islamic studies is compulsory for all Muslim students”.
He added that persons out to destabilise the country were behind rumour that the subject had been removed from secondary school curriculum.
But the national president of CAN, Rev’d Samson Ayokunle, stated in a statement that Adamu was bent on imposing Islamic hegemony through the new curriculum being spearheaded by the Federal Ministry of Education. He accused the Education ministry of imposing Muslims as heads of all federal boards in his ministry.
He challenged the Ministry of Education to publish the new curriculum on CRK, even as he claimed that the new curriculum, which has taken off in Kwara State, does not have provision for CRK, adding that the same report is being received by the body from Delta State.
According to him: “If the two religious studies are being taught separately, why is the agency stating that ‘efforts are in top gear to print the Christian Religious Knowledge and Islamic Studies curriculum separately in order to maintain their characteristics and distinctiveness.
“These statements underscore our position that the subjects were merged before. Do we need to run away from underscoring the importance of these two subjects, which focus on teaching the fear of God, love for others and so on at a time when our nation is facing the challenge of violence and breakup?
“If the new curriculum is treating the two religious subjects separately as being claimed, why do we have a satanic topic in the Civic Education like ‘IS JESUS THE SON OF GOD’? Or is the Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, who disclosed to CAN leadership that this was in the curriculum he earlier saw, lying too?
“The agency claims no student will be forced to register for a religion against his/her wish. That is not true. In Kwara State, for example, the discriminatory curriculum has begun and Christian students who refused to register for it already had their bodies lacerated with cane. We have the names of the victims and their schools with us, including the text message from the parents of such students who were beaten.
“Chairman of CAN in Delta State has also called to complain that students are calling him to say that their teachers are saying that they will no longer be doing CRK as a subject again. Who is deceiving whom?
“As far as CAN is concerned, the curriculum is a time-bomb, obnoxious, divisive and ungodly and its implementation must be stopped until all the grey areas are addressed. Like we told the Acting President, its introduction is an ill-wind that blows nobody any good for so many reasons.”
“If we are going to do pilgrimage together as a nation, there must be fair play, mutual respect for one another and justice which can be brought about by different arms of government. We demand for justice from the government on this matter very quickly.
“We request for a return to the curriculum we were using before this dangerous one which did not produce insurgents or a wrongly indoctrinated Nigerians. It was the students that came from a school system where morning devotion was removed that are behind the insurgency and kidnappings that are happening now and then.
“Those of us who passed through the former system where we all did devotion in the morning and in the afternoon at closing in our schools lived together peacefully irrespective of our religions. The government must stop the operation of this new curriculum. It did not come out of a forward looking research but a backward one. A stitch in time saves nine.
“We caution the Federal Government against the use of propaganda in addressing this sensitive issue because the unity of the country is at stake. We are not crying wolves where none exists.
“We are disappointed hearing the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu claiming that CAN was believing a piece of misinformation received from the social media.
“To say the least, that is a misleading statement from a Minister who is not only trying to Islamise the ministry with all the appointments he has made but denying the reality of discrimination policy under his watch.
“We counsel Adamu to reconcile his position with the spokesperson of his ministry who agreed that both CRK, IRK and Civic Education had been merged to become one subject before denying the reality,” read the statement.
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