Cardinal Okogie is watching but seeing wrongly

A fortnight ago, Saturday April 9, this column in a piece title: ‘The tragedy of a fixated psyche,’ showcased how some Nigerians mischievously manipulate religion to suit their ulterior motives. As bigots, they misinterpret even actions that were prompted by the best of intentions in the light of some incredible arguments or obsessive sentiments. As […]

A fortnight ago, Saturday April 9, this column in a piece title: ‘The tragedy of a fixated psyche,’ showcased how some Nigerians mischievously manipulate religion to suit their ulterior motives. As bigots, they misinterpret even actions that were prompted by the best of intentions in the light of some incredible arguments or obsessive sentiments. As if this were a norm among Nigerians, this writer is again compelled, this week, to react to a different but thematically related matter published on page 13 of The Guardian newspaper of Friday April 15, 2016.
The opinion which was authored by one of the Christian leaders in Nigeria, Anthony Cardinal Okogie, the Archbishop Emeritus of Lagos, is titled: ‘We are watching: The education curriculum.’ While the first part of the piece was devoted to advancing reasons to justify the author’s claim that the existing Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) in the country is an object of suspicion, the second and concluding part of the opinion focused on how successive administrations in the country ruined the education sector through policy somersault and inconsistencies. In order not to join issues and for the purpose of achieving meaningful discourse, this reaction would restrict itself to the issues raised by the writer in the first half of his piece as they concern BEC.
Opening with a statement that describes Nigeria as a country where rumour and conspiracy theories are never in short supply, each of the claims outlined in the piece was, according to the writer, drawn from rumours and suspicions. Acknowledging the dangers posed by rumour-mongers, mischief makers and the social media to harmony in a multi-faith society like Nigeria, Cardinal Okogie said, ‘Let us be hypothetical and imagine that these rumours emanated from the fatal imagination of idle mischief-makers’. He asserted that the powerful influence of the social media is a reflection of the large number of mischief makers whose ‘stock in trade is misinformation for the sake of dissection’; adding that such people know how to make falsehood appear as truth and, even when they speak, they do so in a way that misleads’. The cleric couldn’t have been more right as can be seen later. He observed that ‘such individuals threaten our peaceful coexistence’. 
For a cleric as learned and revered as Cardinal Okogie and as wise enough to appreciate how wrong it is to believe in rumours, one cannot explain why he decided to author a piece which peg is entirely rooted on rumours. He wrote that ‘this curriculum merged subjects like Christian Religious Studies (CRS), Islamic Studies, Civic Education, Social Studies and Security Education in to one compulsory subject;…that our young and impressionable minds will be taught that Jesus neither died on the cross nor resurrected; that all the children to be taught this subject will be required to memorize and recite the Qur’an’.
While it is good that Cardinal Okogie and members of his ‘vigilante group’ are keenly watching the implementation of Nigeria’s BEC; it is unfortunate that they are seeing wrongly. They chose to see it wrongly because of, perhaps, the wrong mindset with which they have been watching. If Cardinal Okogie and his vigilante fellows had desired to see the BEC correctly, they could have obtained a copy of the curriculum which like other public documents is readily and easily accessible especially in schools, public and private; to ascertain whether the contents contained therein confirm or negate the rumours. Logic, commonsense and convention should have guided those watching over the BEC that it isn’t possible to merge Islamic Studies and CRS into one school subject.
How practical is it, if one may ask, to have a teacher that can teach both subjects which are distinct in concepts and contents? For one particular teacher to conveniently and sufficiently give instructions in Islamic Studies and CRS according to the theological teachings of the religions that the two subjects are designed and defined to teach, it would naturally require him/her to profess both religions at the same time. Although Nigeria is the home of very bizarre events and scenarios, the existence of   multi-faith devotees in the country or elsewhere is not yet common public knowledge. Of course, comparative religious studies offered in universities and other tertiary institutions cannot mean combined specialization in Islamic Studies and CRS. Watching over the curriculum would have made a lot of meaning if Cardinal Okogie had quoted relevant parts of the BEC where Christian concepts or teachings are misrepresented. It would have also been scholarly of him, as a passionate stakeholder, if he had cited specific schools where pupils including Christians who offer the ‘merged’ version of religious studies (under Religious and National Values) are require to memorise and recite the Qur’an as alleged.
It would be recalled that former president Goodluck Jonathan convened a National Stakeholders Forum in 2010 to deliberate on the state of education in Nigeria. Sequel to the call by delegates at the summit for a reduction in the number of subjects offered at the basic education level to between 6-13 subjects, the Nigeria Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) was directed to review the 9-Year BEC. This culminated in to a set of subjects, among other new subject groupings, called Religious and National Values (RNV) which comprises of five philosophically-related courses. They are Islamic studies, CRS; Social Studies, Civic Education and Security Education each of which focuses on the inculcation of values. Each of these subjects is still being taught independent of others in the RNV group. Each of the five subjects has its own curriculum with distinct themes and contents that were developed by teachers and educationists who specialised in the respective five subjects.
Rev Dr. Ray C. Chukwura of the ECWA Goodnews Church, Abuja, led others including Rev Fr. Dr. Dominic Arinze and Rev Sister Mary Jude, for instance, in writing the CRS curriculum and its Teachers’ Guide. Could these learned men of God of have erred to insert heresies in the documents? Or is Cardinal Okogie suspecting the then Executive Secretary of the NERDC, Prof Godswill Obioma, a Christian, of allowing dissenting contents to be part the CRS curriculum?
It is not unlikely that some misinformed Muslims also hold similar misconceptions arising from rumours about the BEC. Islam in Qur’an 49:12 warns against believing in suspicions. May Allah (SWT) guide us to watch over BEC and see it correctly, amin.