by Sam Omatseye

 No one has shown by evidence or policy where the governor had imposed hijab. An Islamic group is in court now trying to coerce the government to use hijab because the governor has not followed that path. The so-called Christian leaders did not address that issue.

 Few weeks back, the Osun chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria declared that Governor Rauf Aregbesola planned to islamise the state. I examined this matter and the farce seems something out of Soyinka’s plays.

They claimed that the governor scheduled events for Sunday and that he had imposed hijab as school uniforms. They also caviled his school architecture. Lastly, they wept over calling Osun the state of the virtuous. St. Paul said, to the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupted is nothing pure.

If anyone heard them, they would think the governor routinely schedules events for Sunday, whereas he did it only once in 2011 and it was a press conference over a matter that they wanted urgently to beat deadline for the Monday papers. I know that his predecessors held some events on Sundays, where was CAN then? No one has shown by evidence or policy where the governor had imposed hijab. An Islamic group is in court now trying to coerce the government to use hijab because the governor has not followed that path. The so-called Christian leaders did not address that issue.

On the land of the virtuous, the Christian men were disingenuous. The expression “Living spring,” did not come out of a Christian concept of the state but its natural endowments of waterways. That the CAN saw it as a Christian idea for Osun meant that they wanted the state to Christianise Osun. They are guilty of their accusations. Again, they should understand processes before making high decibels of nonsensical noise. The phrase “land of the virtuous” came out of the phrase “omoluabi.” In translation, it became “virtue.” Virtue does not belong to Muslims alone. St. Peter wrote, “add to your faith, virtue…” He was not addressing non-Christians. Overwhelmed by their spirit of adversary, CAN and its fellow cohorts are denying a preeminent Christian quality. As a Christian myself, I weep.

If the CAN is not happy with the modern schools Ogbeni is building, they must be turning CAN into institutional apostasy. The Bible says we should follow whatever things are pure and of good report. I have seen the schools and only a CAN inspired by politics rather than virtue will condemn them. Have they seen the urban renewal going on there, the strides in educational amenity, or health care, or infrastructure? If CAN would rather see ghosts of zealotry, it is tragic. They are Pharisees in Nigerian politics, “whited sepulchres” with dead men’s bones within, apologies to the Christ.

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