National
President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Samson Ayokunle, has
insisted that the new national curriculum on education, released by National
Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) is time bomb that is not
only against the Christians, but also, Muslims.
Rev.
Ayokunle argued that the curriculum is more against Christians and warned that
all anti-Christian clauses in the curriculum must be expunged by the Federal
Government because it is capable of setting the country on fire.
Ayokunle,
who is also the national president of Nigerian Baptist Convention (NBC), spoke
with Daily Sun, on the first day of a three-day conference, organised by Fuel
the Fire Ministers’ Network (Covenant Alliance) in Ibadan.
President of
the ministry, Bishop Olumakinde Samuel Alawode, urged CAN to have an arm that
would monitor policies of government at all levels to ensure that
anti-Christian clauses are not allowed in the policies, instead of advocating
their removal after the policies have been formulated.
Regardless,
the CAN president stated that the booklet which NERDC brought out for year one
to nine – primary school up to junior secondary school as national curriculum,
is not only against Christians, it is also against Muslims because they have
reduced the teaching of those two subjects – Christian Religious Knowledge
(CRK) and Islamic Religious Knowledge
(IRK), and merged them into one.
“Is it now
that we are having more violence, when we need to teach people more about the
love of God, the love for one another and the need for peaceful co-existence,
which the religions teach that you will now be de-emphasising the moral
teachings of the religions and merge them into one. That will not take us
anywhere. Then, all the clauses in that curriculum, which is antagonistic to
the tenets of another major religion should never appear in national
curriculum. It will not do us any good. So, this is what we are saying and we
are telling the government, that curriculum must be repealed, it must be
scrapped, it is of no use, it is irrelevant, it is an ill-wind that blows no
one any good.”
Addressing
Christian ministers drawn from all over the country, and two other countries,
Ayokunle said: “We have started suspecting that there are some policies in
Nigeria that we must not allow, otherwise, we would live no future of faith for
our children, we would not be able to hand over the legacy of knowing God
through Christ that our parents handed over to us. One of them is the one that
I am presently fighting with the rest of the team on the obnoxious national
curriculum on education; that curriculum is going to be scrapped in the mighty
name of Jesus, especially the one that has to do with year one to nine, which
is from primary school to junior secondary school.
“We have
some clauses there that will set the nation on fire. It should not appear on
national curriculum, where one religion will be teaching children that ‘Jesus
Christ did not die on the cross, he did not rise from the dead’ and so on. The
teachings are very provocative that will make school pupils to be boxing one
another. If you want to teach that in
your privacy, go and teach it. But never in the national curriculum.
“Also, we
are resisting with everything within us the attempt to reduce the status of
religious teachings, the attempt to merge Christianity, Islamic studies, civil
education together and call it Religious and National Values, is totally
rejected.
We render
that null and void and of no effect.
“I took this
battle last week to the acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. It is a
gunpowder. It is a time bomb. When it explodes, it will spare no one. We have
had enough violence.
“It was when
they removed morning devotion from school that people who are terrorists now
were either in primary or secondary school. They were not brought up under the
fear of God. Christians and Muslims were not brought up to love one another in
those schools, and when they passed out, they became a menace to the entire
nation. So, we see a wave of secularism, trying to make itself God here in
Nigeria.
“Unfortunately,
by the time that curriculum was being mooted, the Nigerian Educational Research
and Development Council (NERDC) had seven directors. The executive director
there was a so-called Christian. Out of the seven directors, five were
Christians and two were Muslims, yet they came out with that senseless
curriculum.
“I am saying
this not to incite people. I know there is television here covering me. I will
not say anything out of my mouth, which I am not sure of. That was the reason
every attempt they have been making, maybe to arrest me or whatever, they have
to double-cross their facts because I will not go openly and say fallacy. Five
of the directors were Christians; Christians that lost their heads.”
Ayokunle
also took a swipe at a number of ministers, saying: “Some of you pastors are at
fault. You are not disciplining your members, maybe you just worship their
money. You worship their status. They are infidels. They don’t know the law.
Ministers should beware of mixed multitude.”
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