Many northern states disallowed teaching of Christian Religious Knowledge – Taraba Rep

When I got to the House of Representatives years ago, a professor in the ECWA theological institute in Jos came to see Honourable (Kingsley) Chinda and I happened to enter the office at that time. He called my attention to some challenges that they – Christian educationists – were facing. The first one is that Christian education, that is the schools that have been established by the various churches, don’t get their certificates recognised. If you complete (your education) from any theological institution in my country today, unless that course is affiliated with a university or a college of education, the certificate that you get from that institution is not recognised by the public service in Nigeria. And we know that a very large number of Christians get their education from those institutions. We also do know that those institutions, especially in the northern part of the country, face groups of institutions that provide education services for most people – Muslims and Christians – who are today educated. That is one area.

The second area we noticed was that in several schools, especially in northern Nigeria, having a certificate from a theological institution or seminary does not qualify you to teach in a public school. And several states in the North have refused to allow the teaching of Christian Religious Knowledge. They say there were no qualified teachers or educationists who could handle that. So, as of today, several states in the North don’t teach Christian Religious Knowledge. The excuse they have is that the seminaries are not recognised by the government. I remember that there is an ECWA theological institution in Kwara State (established) by the United Methodist which gave me an honourary award – Ph.D. When we were discussing with them, they were struggling to get affiliated with some public institutions so that their certificates would be recognised, even though they provide high-quality education; so that they could fill the needs of providing Christian Religious Knowledge in public schools. These were some of the reasoning behind the bill. By the way, I need to point out that the bill came out of very serious discussions with Christian education associations, some theologians, and people who are involved in Christian education in the country.

Third, you also know that as of today, any person can just wake up, form a church and then say they have established an institution and they can award certificates. Now, that becomes a problem for everybody. While you cannot stop that one from happening, so that you don’t infringe on the religious rights of the people, I think you need to have a body that can set standards, approve curriculums for these schools and certify the teachers that are teaching, and regularly inspect to see that they are following some approved syllabuses that are taught in the schools. Presently, we don’t have that in the country.

Do you see this bill gaining wide acceptance on the floor of the House, as religious sentiments may not favour it, especially if there is no Islamic version of the proposed body?

You might wish to know that as of today, since 2017, a board was created without an enabling law – the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies – as a regulator and examination body for Islamic studies. And this board has been enjoying patronage without an enabling law. In the last few years that the board has existed, the National Assembly has appropriated money for it. I may read to you some of the functions of the board. The board, among other things, is to conduct examinations leading to the award of Basic Arabic and Islamic School Certificates and Senior Arabic and Islamic School Certificates; develop, regulate and administer examinations; monitor, collate and keep records of continuous assessment of Arabic and Islamic studies; conduct research, publish statistics, etc. So, the Muslims already have a version of their own that has been functioning without an enabling law. Recently, the House of Reps passed the bill for third reading. It has since been sent to the Senate for concurrence. So, while it will be discriminatory – so to say – to have a board performing these functions for Islamic education and you don’t have one for Christian education, our own was not as a result of competition; our is to fill these needs that do exist today.
If this bill was to be categorised, would you say it is educational or religious, especially when there is a debate over religious interference in secular governmental bodies?

We are not talking about Christianity or sentiments of religion. You will understand that whether the board does exist or not, today we have gaps that need to be filled. Who is qualified to teach Christian Religious Knowledge in schools? There are some places that, if you check, you will discover that we have Muslims teaching Christian Religious Knowledge. That will not be appropriate in my opinion. Second, there are places they said they cannot teach Christian Religious Knowledge in schools, even though it is recognised by WAEC and NECO, despite the fact that there are students who are willing to (take the class and examination) but there are no teachers. So, if there are no teachers and you have theological institutions that have been training people who are capable of (taking the subject), why don’t you certify these people? But you cannot just certify everybody, you need to set up a system that will do things appropriately; that will solve the problem that has been identified.

If you look at the powers and functions of the board, Section 7 (of the Bill) makes it very clear. It says ‘…to develop, regulate and approve Christian education syllabuses at all levels of education; to monitor and collect data on Christian education; to certify Christian religious education instructors at all basic and secondary school levels.’ For instance, we have had this problem where some of the official documents of the government, are trying to say that Jesus Christ was not a saviour but just a prophet…in the government’s education documents. That is like attacking Christianity frontally. So, we (should) now have a body that can create a syllabus and system where people can be fairly assessed; where the assessment and the teaching will not go against Christianity itself.

How is the proposed body going to be structured? Will it be under the Ministry of Education like the NUC, NABTEB, and others?

Actually, on the board of the council, you will have regulatory bodies like the Ministry of Education and the rest of them. They will work in collaboration and agree on the syllabuses. If you look at Section 3, you will see that ‘The following are ex-officio members of the board: Education Research and Development Council, Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, National Examination Council of Nigeria, Ministry of Education…’ and so on. So, it is not something that is going contrary; it is to make sure that you don’t have abuse of Christianity itself.

The President and the Minister of Education also have critical roles to play in the administration of the council. What if they have a different religious bias?

You cannot have a body that is not accountable to the government in Nigeria. Even the Islamic one is accountable to the President who does the appointments. But if you look at where they (the board members) will be appointed from; as you know, Christianity is divided into different denominations; you have Pentecostals, and you also have the ‘white garment’ churches. What we have tried to do is that ‘Why don’t we appoint one person from each of the blocs of the Christian Association of Nigeria?’ Then we said, ‘How about having the association of theological institutions also on board?’ They have an association. Appoint somebody from there. Then you have Christian lawyers. Then you have educationists; the private people who are educationists. Actually, a lot of things were taken into cognisance when the bill was being conceived. As I said, there were consultations among Christian groups.
The bill was not meant to regulate the practice of Christianity but to formalise or standardise the teaching in schools in a way that is acceptable. That is the target. The council is not going to regulate what the theological institutions teach. But if you are coming to teach something (CRK) in a public school, there has to be a standard.

Talking about religious education, there are cases of some governments taking over missionary schools and others returning them. What is the significance of religion in education and its impact on students?

When these missionary schools were taken over, I think it was under the government of General Yakubu Gowon that most of this took place. The intention was that the government would take over the funding of education. So far, the government has shown that it does not have the capacity to fund education. And in some states like Anambra, (a former governor) Peter Obi handed over most of the schools back to their owners. Several states like Kaduna have resisted. It is very unfortunate that in a state like Kaduna, a school that is called Queen Amina today was actually St. Anne’s. It has been taken over and Christians in Kaduna have complained that every vestige is being done to make sure that the school is Islamic and not Christian anymore. So, you have that controversy now, if you want to get the schools back to their owners. But my thinking is that education if you look at your certificate from the university, you will discover that you were not assessed on the basis of academic qualification only; it is written there on the certificate that it is also on the basis of your character. Character is something