Kwara Warns Principals Of Schools Against Forcing Students Not To Wear Hijab

The Kwara State Government yesterday retreated that the directive on schoolgirl to wear the Hijab in all public schools, including grant-aided Christian missionary schools, is still in force and warned that any principals that failed to carry out the directive would be made to face the full wrath of the law.

The state government said that “this directive conforms to the judicial pronouncements of the courts of law and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

The government, therefore, reaffirmed the use of the hijab by willing Muslim schoolgirls in all categories of public schools in the state. The issue of wearing of hijab in schools in the state came to the front burner over the weekend as the Principals of St. Clares Girls High School, Offa in Offa Local Government Area and Oyun Baptist High School, Ijagbo in Oyun Local Government Area of the state disallowed students who were wearing hijabs from entering schools. The development, however, generated tensions in the affected schools but the quick intervention of the stakeholders prevented the situation from turning into another chaos.

The Chairman of the State Teaching Service Commission, Mr. Abubakar Bello, has summoned a meeting over the development and warned principals to desist from discriminating against the hijab dress code on the students.

A statement issued by the State Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, Ms. Saadatu Modibbo Kawu, after a peaceful meeting between Muslim and Christian stakeholders in Ijagbo, Oyun Local Government Area in Ilorin said: “The policy statement of the Kwara State Government allowing willing Muslim schoolgirl to wear the hijab in all public schools, including grant-aided ones, is binding.

“This conforms with the judicial pronouncements of the courts of law and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

Kawu, in a statement that was signed by her Press Secretary, Mr. Yakub Aliagan, appealed to both Muslim and Christian leaders to allow peace to reign in the state.

She, thereafter, directed the school heads of Oyun Baptist High School, Ijagbo to immediately implement the policy statement on the use of approved hijab in public schools.

She also warned that anybody trying to sabotage the peaceful coexistence among the people of Kwara State would face the full wrath of the law.