The Ramadan school closures

As is characteristic of underperforming leaders, especially political leaders who often make a recourse to primordial sentiments to placate their citizens, no fewer than four state governors, all from the North, have ordered the closure of schools in their states for five weeks, ostensibly to enable the students to participate in Ramadan fasting. The states are Bauchi, Kebbi, Kano and Katsina. This is really preposterous because even in the recognised Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, no such retrogressive decision has been taken by the political leadership. In other words, in countries that are destinations of other Muslims for holy pilgrimage and other Islamic faith exercises, the authorities are matching education with spiritual practice. And these are countries that are far ahead of Nigeria in terms of socioeconomic progress. But it is the usual way of leaders who have little or nothing to offer to latch onto factors such as ethnicity, religion and tradition to take decisions and actions that will make them appear to be on the side of the citizenry while in actual fact they are hurting them. And it is difficult not to construe the bizarre action of the four governors in this context. Or how would reasonable and progressive leaders disrupt the education of the leaders of tomorrow for five weeks? Did they even think through their decision and consider the bigger picture?

As expected, many stakeholders have condemned the governors’ action. The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) issued a 72 – hour ultimatum to the four northern state governors demanding the reversal of their strange and poor decision. The NANS National Public Relations Officer, Samson Adeyemi, described the decision as a blatant violation of the affected students’ right to uninterrupted education. The students’ body threatened both legal action and mass mobilisation of students for protests should the governors stick to their guns. Similarly, the Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory ( FCT) also vehemently censured the governors’ action. The Northern CAN chairman, John Hayab, is particularly worried that the school closures will negatively impact students sitting senior and junior secondary school examinations. He lamented the further disruption of the academic calendar against the backdrop of the drawbacks in school life that children in many northern states had been facing as result of heightened insecurity which had obstructed the education of many children.

He pointedly admonished the affected state governments to learn to match education with the practice of faith. However, in spite of parents, educators and civil societies organisations’ call on these governors to rescind their decision, there is nothing to suggest that they are ready to backtrack. There is this ignoble objective that the leaders are being accused of: they pretend to be satisfying the yearnings of the largely undiscerning elements among their people, in order to keep them backward and, of course, in perpetual subjugation. They are breeding a population that they can lead by the nose. Even though this allegation is largely unproven, some awkward and retrograde decisions of the leaders tend to lend credence to it. It is imperative to remind everyone that the menace of banditry and insurgency in the North are not happenstances; they are largely consequences of age-long neglect of the poor and misplacement of priorities by the leadership in the region.

The school closures are wrong and the motivation is patently flawed. And we cannot but raise a few posers. Are there no people of other faiths in the closed schools? Or is it that the governors could not care a hoot about plurality? Why suppress the rights of others? How reasonable is the decision of these four governors against the backdrop of the recent Multidimensional Poverty Index by the National Bureau of Statistics which ranked the states poorly in terms of children’s access to education? For instance, the affected states, namely Bauchi, Kebbi, Katsina and Kano were rated 54, 45, 38 and 35 percent, respectively, in terms of the population of children that lack access to education. Why would state governors who are aware that their states are educationally disadvantaged be taking decisions and actions that could exacerbate their current sordid state of affairs? Is it that the leadership is profiting from the backwardness of the people, and so would always strive to maintain the status quo at all costs? Pray, what gain is to be expected here? Who would teach the pupils and students what they missed during the forced closure? Is it the same teachers who did not stop them from coming to school in the first place? And how are they to catch up with students in other places who are able to observe Ramadan without missing school and are thus able to learn whatever is meant to be learnt during this period? We do not see the connection between Ramadan and school closure, except in the decidedly infuriating, religiously overworked sentiments of the governors concerned, and they should all be ashamed of themselves for taking this retrogressive step.

Why is it not sufficient for the governors to reduce the hours that schools could be in session during Ramadan instead of an outright closure of the schools? A nation too eager to proceed on needless holidays can hardly prosper. The same applies to states that take whimsical decisions on the education of their children. For instance, it is unlikely that the recent school closures are backed by any Islamic teachings. Rather, they are most probably motivated by political expediency. Thus, notwithstanding that education is on the concurrent legislative list, the Federal Government is urged to register its dissent with the action of the four state governors officially and in strong terms. For when the consequences of actions taken not for the common good but for political expediency crystalize, everyone, including those who did not take or support such unprogressive actions, will be affected. A stitch in time still saves nine.