By Wole Mosadomi

Bibles are not allowed in schools anymore but encouraged in prisons. If kids were allowed to read the Bible in school, they may not end up in prison.”

A visit to many prisons across the country will show that most of the inmates awaiting trial, including even the hardened criminals amongst them, are hungry to listen to the word of God and reading the Holy Bible.

In the first instance, some of the inmates wouldn’t have found themselves within the four walls of the prisons if they actually had  access to the word of God while in the free society.

The above scenario is a challenge to parents and the government of Niger State against the backdrop that, solid foundation  for the family, state and nation starts from the home  and concretized in school.

There has been a running battle since 2003  between the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Niger State government  over the employment of teachers to teach Christian Religious Knowledge (CRK) in public schools across the state.

Meanwhile, almost  one year since the administration of Abubakar Sani Bello came to power, the story has  remained the same despite words of commitment given by governor on the  issue during his campaign last year.

Chairman, Christian Religious Knowledge in the state, Reverend Joseph Tokolo, in an interview on the matter, said, as at 2004when there were about 152 schools, CRK teachers were only 120 across the state which, he said, was grossly inadequate.

“In 2004, when we hosted the National Conference of CRK Teachers, the statistics of Christian religious teachers across the state, including the borrowed ones, was not even up to the ratio of one teacher to a school,” Tokolo stated.

“In 2014, when the state hosted another National Conference, the statistics given to us by government was 220 CRK teachers and this also included  non-qualified teachers and, as at that time, we had over 450 schools and the ratio is not even up to half, up till now, because there has been no new recruitment to replace the retired ones.”

He said CAN saw this as a big challenge and, therefore, engaged volunteer-teachers and paid them N6,000 stipend each  to fill the gap.

Teacher

While  Christian children are  denied  the right  to  basic religious learning, it is not the same  with Islamic Religious Knowledge as there are qualified teachers to teach the subject in most of the schools in Niger.

Consequently, the question raised by stakeholders is whether there are no qualified CRK teachers in the state.

Tokolo made it clear that the problem is not one of  lack of CRK teachers but a deliberate attempt by the past administrations to discourage the teaching of Christianity in the state government owned  schools.

He appealed to the present state administration to revisit the issue.

“I made it known some years back when the insurgency started that one of the best ways to tackle it was  to expose youths to the word of God so that they are not carried away by worldly affairs and this can still be checked by making sure that our youths, Christians, Muslims and others are taught the way of God so as to live descent lives”.

The state CAN Chairman, Rev. Musa Dada, in an interview, expressed sadness over the issue, saying  it is very clear that the previous administrations in Niger played politics with the teaching of  CRK in Niger schools.

“I feel so sad that, top on my agenda when I was voted   in as CAN Chairman was how to solve the problem of lack of CRK teachers in public schools in the state in collaboration with the state government. But, from all indications, government failed me and the entire Christians in the state on the subject”, Dada said.

“When I had the opportunity to meet with the governors on several occasions, I presented  our demands to them with convincing reasons on the need for recruitment of CRK teachers and Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu, particularly, gave me his words on the issue and even directed me to personally look for qualified CRK teachers from anywhere which we did and 100 names were shotlisted and submitted to the government but, unfortunately, nothing came out of it”.

The CAN Chairman said  the state needs nothing less than 300 CRK teachers to take charge of the over 300 schools and that would be an average of 1 teacher to 1 school.

“We are not even insisting that the entire 300 should be covered  at once but government should be seen to   be starting from somewhere,”he stated.

“If government wants justice and fair play, it should be able to employ nothing less than 250 CRK teachers. The scenario between CAN and the previous administrations was nothing but playing politics with   religion because, at the initial stage, I thought government was serious and sincere with us on the issue but they fooled us because, at the end, all was political language”.

Dada said during his campaign to CAN office last year, the issue was top on the  agenda put before the governor and he promised to make it  a priority if elected.

He said  Bello, as a  governorship candidate then, was shocked and wondered why such a sensitive issue should be allowed to fester and promised to solve the problem immediately.

“This is the statement I as CAN Chairman and all Christians in Niger are holding to now because he made the promise in CAN secretariat during his campaign just last year and now that God has given him victory, we are looking forward to him to fulfil this promise because he is almost one year in office and these vacancies are still there.”