18th
August,
2020
PRESS RELEASE:
MAKE EDUCATION SECTOR MODEL OF
EXCELLENCE:
MURIC TELLS LAGOS GOVT
The
Nigerian Islamic human rights organisation, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC),
has appealed to the Lagos State government (LASG) to revisit the education
sector with a view to correcting the glaring lop-sidedness in the appointment
of tutor-generals and school principals. MURIC also raised the issue of many
qualified Muslim teachers on grade level 17 who are still marking time when
they should have been appointed principals.
“The
Director of MURIC, Professor Ishaq Akintola, made the appeal in a statement
issued on Tuesday, 18th August, 2020.
The
statement reads:
“Lagos
State has been divided into six education districts since the days of Chief
Bola Tinubu. Each education district has a tutor general/permanent secretary
saddled with the responsibility of overseeing the activities of the schools and
their personnel. Tinubu, a Muslim, ensured fairness by sharing the six posts
50:50 between Muslims and Christians.
“Akinwunmi
Ambode made it 4:2 in favour of Christians. The tricky game employed was to
appoint some Muslims who have long converted to Christianity but who retained
their Muslim names. It would then appear as if Muslims were appointed yet they
were cleverly shortchanged.
“Under Governor Babajide
Sanwoolu today there is no single Muslim tutor-general. There is also an uneven
distribution of heads of department in the six districts. There are five departments
in each district with a head of department (HOD) directing its affairs. So
there are thirty (30) HODs in all. These HODs are part of the management team. Unfortunately
there are only five (5) Muslim HODs out of the thirty (30).
“A
research conducted in 2019 to know the distribution of school principals
between Christians and Muslims resulted in the table below:
|
S/N |
DISTRICT |
NO. OF PRINCIPALS |
NO. OF CHRISTIAN PRINCIPALS |
NO. OF MUSLIM PRINCIPALS |
|
1 |
I |
99 |
91 |
8 |
|
2 |
II |
105 |
92 |
13 |
|
3 |
III |
130 |
95 |
35 |
|
4 |
IV |
94 |
76 |
18 |
|
5 |
V |
136 |
117 |
19 |
|
6 |
VI |
104 |
94 |
10 |
|
|
TOTAL |
668 |
565 |
103 |
A
quick analysis of the above table shows that there are six hundred and sixty
eight (668) principals in Lagos State public schools. Of this number, five hundred
and sixty-five (565) are Christians while only one hundred and three (103) are
Muslims. This implies that Christian
principals are 84.6% while Muslim principals are 15. 4%. Like in the case of
tutor-generals, some principals who have long converted to Christianity but who
retained their Muslim names were made principals while the real Muslims are
left to rot in the system.
“What is the implication of
this imbalance? Firstly, tutor-generals influence the appointment of school
principals but anybody can guess what will happen in a situation where all the
tutor-generals are Christians. Again, the use of hijab in public schools is
largely determined by the disposition of school principals. Since the ratio is
84:15, it becomes clear why majority of the school principals disallow the use
of hijab in their schools despite a subsisting court judgement in favour of its
use.
“MURIC calls for the appointment of more
Muslims as school principals. We lay emphasis on the appointment of real
Muslims and not Muslims who have converted but retained their Muslim names.
This should not be difficult if the authorities consult leaders of the Muslim
Teachers Association (MUTAN). We believe that our call is timely and it is more so
particularly when the state government has recently invited applications into
the position of TG/PS and it is poised to recruit more teachers.
“The question of
nonavalability of qualified Muslims does not arise because Lagos is replete
with hundreds of well qualified and competent Muslims who are yearning for the
opportunity to exhibit their potentials. In addition, many Muslim teachers who
are on grade level 17 appear to have been placed on redundancy as they are not
appointed as principals or vice principals. Their list can easily be obtained
from the leadership of MUTAN or that of the Lagos State Muslim Community.
“There
is also lop-sidedness in favour of Christians in the manner school assemblies
are conducted. Most schools give Christians four days (Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday and Thursday) while Muslims have Friday alone. Some allow Muslims to
use Thursday and Friday. For fairness, we suggest that Christians should be
given two days (Monday and Tuesday), Muslims should also have two days
(Thursday and Friday) while Wednesday should be left for Yoruba assembly.
“Our
appeal to the Lagos State government is to make the education sector a model of
excellence in keeping with the status of Lagos as the centre of excellence.
Lagos has always been in the forefront of liberal policies, improved workers’
welfare, modernisation and other forms of human progress.
“This is not
praise-singing. The records are there for all to applaud Lagos. Apart from
Enugu in 1980, Lagos was one of the first states to establish a state
university (1984), the first to increase maternity leave to six months, the
first to build an atlantic city (Eko Atlantic), the first to introduce local
council development areas (LCDA) and many more pacesetting initiatives. Lagos
leads, others follow.
“MURIC
is known to have lodged certain complaints against some states in Nigeria
concerning their treatment of Muslims. It will therefore be another ‘first’ and
another feather in Lagos’ cap if the state’s education authorities address the
issues raised above before others do so.
“We recall that the Lagos
Muslim Community under the able leadership of Professor T.G.O. Gbadamosi and
the Chief Imam of Lagos, His Eminence, Engr Sulaimon Oluwatoyin Abou Noula,
raised some of these issues in the presence of the incumbent governor during
the 2019 electoral campaigns. We honestly believe that it is high time they
were addressed.”
Professor
Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights
Concern (MURIC)
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