Excerpts from Boko Haram’s rage against Western Education.

Background

Boko Haram, means ‘western education is sin’.

As at 2004, authorities said hundreds of youths some reading medicine, pharmacy, engineering, agriculture and humanities dropped out of universities and other tertiary institutions from across Nigeria and join the group with the hope of strategising on how to wipe out government and Western education in all its ramifications. To them, anything Western is against Islam, a claim many Islamic clerics condemn as false.

Boko Haram’’s Preffered School System...

When a director of School Services from the Taraba State Ministry of Education undertook an inspection visit to a school sometime ago, the conduct and attitude of both the pupils and the teachers were strange and unconventional. He was neither accorded courtesies nor protocols as a visiting official from the education Ministry.

Rather than welcome the visitor, both the teachers and pupils watched in silence and suspicion as the director and his inspecting team moved from class to class. “Nobody uttered a word to us; rather we were looked at as strangers whose presence at the school premises was prohibited”, said the director who simply gave his name as Hussaini.

Located at Angwan Lariya in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, Alfurquan Islamic School is said to have been operating secretly over the years before it was recently discovered to be owned by a disciple of the Maiduguri-based leader of the controversial Islamic sect that is opposed to Western education.

Investigations by Weekly Trust show that the ethics taught at the Islamic school are in consonance with the radical philosophy of the Boko Haram Islamic sect which prohibits its adherents from having anything to do with Western education.

For instance pupils of the strange school are said to be forbidden from bathing with soap, eating meat, as well as consuming any food prepared with seasoning cubes. It was in realisation of the unusual traits exhibited by pupils of the schools in their various homes that some parents became uncomfortable and started withdrawing them from the school.

Alhaji Inuwa Jauro Manu Mafindi who, incidentally, is the Taraba State Chairman of the Muslim Council of Nigeria, is one of those parents that have withdrawn their wards from the Alfurquan Islamic School in Jalingo.

“Nobody wants to leave their children in that school anymore. I personally had three of my grandchildren withdrawn from the school when they started exhibiting unusual traits,” Mafindi said.

Reactions....

Authorities of the Taraba State ministry of education have confirmed that the school is “illegal” and has not been registered with the ministry. Anthony Adda, the state Commissioner of Education said it was in this regard and the complaints raised by some parents regarding the unconventional activities at the school that prompted its closure.

“We have written a letter to the Commissioner of Police, Director SSS and the acting Governor of the state notifying them of the discovery and closure of the “illegal” school”, Adda said.

Weekly Trust checks revealed that authorities of the Ministry of Education in the state were foot dragging over the existence of the illegal school until the recent outbreak of attacks by the Boko Haram sect that started in Bauchi and spread to other states, particularly in the north-east.

Meanwhile, following the closure, the school has now been deserted by both teachers and students, even as security operatives have been detailed to keep vigil over it to avert any possible outbreak of crisis.

Taraba State Police command Public Relations Officer, Sani Babaina confirmed to Weekly Trust that men of the State Police command were maintaining surveillance at the school premises.

Boko haram’s Rage....

Boko Haram includes members from neighboring Chad and are said to not only oppose Western education, but Western culture as well. Abdulmuni Ibrahim Mohammed, a senior member of the group arrested on Monday, told the media that “We do not believe in Western education. It corrupts our ideas and beliefs. That is why we are standing up to defend our religion.”

Mohammed Yusuf in a media interview said, “Democracy and the current system of education must change, otherwise this war that is yet to start will continue for long.”

Many members of this group tore their degree certificates, while others dropped out from schools as a way of renouncing western education.

Speaking to Saturday Vanguard, one of the members of the group arrested by security men in Bauchi, 18 years old Adamu Adbullahi, who dropped out of school, said he disobeyed his mother in order to join Boko Haram.

The Contradictions…..

According to an AIG “ They forbid anything western yet their leader has an array of western materials in his possession ..Even the phones, Jeep cars. I wonder if they were made by him…

Compiled by

Wale Samuel

Policy Advisor

CSACEFA

Hailstones Against ‘Western Education’ in Some Northern Nigerian States

PRESS RELEASE

29^th July 2009

Recent hailstones Against ‘Western Education’ in Some Northern Nigerian States

As the recent crisis in the Northern Nigeria States of Bauchi, Kano and Borno is being curtailed, it may be necessary to revisit the root cause of the conflagration and deduce lessons learnt to help smother a reoccurrence of such in the future.

Though President Yar Adua has decried reports that the conflict is religious and insisting that they were rather the handwork of a troublesome Taliban group that attacked men of the security forces, the destruction the upheaval left in its wake and the overt demands by the fundamentalist group fingered in the attack calls for concern among well meaning Nigerians. Reports have it that lots of displaced people were sheltered in barracks in Maiduguri on Tuesday after two days of clashes which has resulted in the death of at least 100 people.

Of concern to CSACEFA is the call by the group called Boko Haram, which opposes Western education. This group, fingered in the unrest was quoted by Reuters as saying:"We do not believe in Western education. It corrupts our ideas and beliefs.” Boko Haram, which means "education illegal," reportedly began its string of attacks in the north eastern city of Bauchi on Sunday after the arrest of some of its members.

Last year, media reports speculating legislative actions against co education in Bauchi State necessitated a meeting on 19 September 2008 in Bauchi by representatives of the affiliates of the Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA) and other major stakeholder organizations like CAPP, AHIP, Action Aid and FOMWAN. The purpose of the meeting was to identify the surreptitious legislative undercurrents against co education and proffer solutions. The exponents of the Bill viewed Co education of boys and girls in the same classroom as inappropriate.

Resolutions from the meeting are still very much instructive in finding a lasting palliative to such acts of insurgency like those of Boko Haram.

· Sensitive issues like religious interpretations of ideals should be handled through participatory advocacy and sensitisation programmes by State Governments before they get out of hand.

· Sensitisation of stakeholders in the education sector should be self evident and based on time proven facts that education does not necessarily corrode cherished religious and cultural ideals.

· Media handling of such sensitive issues should be objective and the public adequately informed.

· Community members should be informed and educated that citizens reserve the right to choose a preferred education for their wards based on their convictions.

· Such incessant attacks could isolate the States concern from progressive global practices and may also alienate them from sources of critically needed external support for the implementation of their ongoing educational programmes. Some these supports are already operational in the affected states and are inspired by past achievements recorded by these states in the basic education sector.

· The affected States should immediately fast track programmes to make the community take greater responsibilities for the schooling of their wards in terms of community participation in school governance.

Given this confusion that attended the purported evils of western education CSACEFA hereby appeal to the affected States (Executive and Legislative authorities ) and other well-meaning personalities to maintain peace and work for unity and avert future religious tension in the states’’ education sector and in the larger society.

Meanwhile CSACEFA has commenced consultations with our members in the affected States on the way forward from this unfortunate event.

Wale Samuel

Policy Advisor

Civil Society Action Coalition on Education For All

CSACEFA