By Louis Odion, FNGE
Christian
clerics currently raising hell over the subsuming of CRK under another subject
in the school curriculum could not be said to have a full view of the bigger
sharp razor grating the soft underbelly of the nation's education system.
Far
more lethal, in my view, is the subtle but sustained sexualization of the
curriculum at the secondary level.
This
existential threat, more than the fixation on CRK and IRK, ought to rouse both
Christian and Islamic faiths into urgent action.
Before
we proceed, perhaps a quick word of caution is still auspicious against the
backcloth of the growing fire-storm over the "downgrading" of CRK.
Given the sensitivity of religion in our environment, the subterfuge by the
officialdom and its enablers in a section of the intelligentsia that the policy
was inherited from the Jonathan administration - that a "Christian
President" actually initiated it - is quite unhelpful indeed.
Agreed
that Jonathan was clueless. If the man was also reckless enough yesterday to
sow land-mines on his trail, common-sense should prompt the succeeding
administration to clear the death trap, not showcase same any further. Faith is
fueled by passion, not reason. Only fools would then have imagined that there
would be no consequences if adherents of one religion feel - rightly or wrongly
- that their totem is being displaced to the upliftment of another faith.
What
a wise leadership then does in the circumstance is exercise utmost caution. In
any case, the nation's prevailing weather is already inclement enough with
heavy political turbulence. Let no one add sectarian grenades to the mix.
Now,
to the darker iceberg looming ahead. In our own days in the secondary school,
the authorities paid more than casual interest to the texts we were
exposed to and the sort of characters we made heroes.
Odion |
For
Literature in English in the junior class, we read "Passport of Mallam
Ilia" by Cyprian Ekwensi, "So Long A Letter" by Mariam Ma Ba,
"Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway and so on.
Later
in senior class, Peter Abrahams' "Mine Boy" opened our eyes to
the evil of Apartheid in South Africa. Kenneth Kaunda's "Zambia Shall Be
Free" fired our patriotism instinct.
Beyond
the riveting plots, each of the novels referenced was meant
to impart on our young minds the virtues of patriotism,
honesty, forgiveness, piety, patience, endurance and so on.
So,
it should be of grave concern today to anyone who cares about the nation's
future that a great number of books being imposed on Nigerian kids are, at best,
soft porn in text. This sort of hemlock spares neither Christianity nor Islam.
True, modernity demands that writing mirrors it, but not at the expense of
morality. It is already bad enough that environment is contaminated for the
contemporary Nigerian child with the explicit contents of music, radio,
television, newspaper etc.
Adding
a steamy syllabus to that atmosphere of obscenity will be an overkill indeed.
Already,
a strong case against this worrisome development has been marshaled by an
advocacy group, Project For Human Development (PHD), and the Parents/Teachers
Association of a Lagos-based school, The Crescent School, alongside the school
management.
In
an online campaign seeking signatories to its petition, PHD seeks the outright
repeal of the COMPREHENSIVE SEXUALITY EDUCATION (CSE) "smuggled into
school curricula" without parental consent. Reason? Explains PHD: "It
is aimed at luring hapless school children into sexual perversity. The students
in open classroom are taught the various techniques of 'safe sex'.
They
are told to touch their genitals and turn to one another and say 'I like you'.
Students are taught how to wear the condoms and how to give oral sex,
'hanky-panky', 'blowjobs' and masturbate in open classroom. This is CRIMINAL.
It is devilish. It is unlawful. It is unconstitutional. It is not African. It
is imported from the West. It is destroying the character of our school
children. Therefore you must rise up now and say NO to Comprehensive Sexuality
Education (CSE). You must stand up and be counted. It is your right as parents/
guardians/citizens to be heard."
In
their own petition already delivered to the Federal Ministry of Education in
Abuja, the concerned parents of the Crescent School frown at the new
"raunchy policies" of Joint Admission Matriculation (JAMB) and NECO.
In
the case of the former, the parents wrote: "(T)he tradition of literary
immorality has recently graduated to the level of ... blame-able content of its
recommended Use of English text for the 2017 UTME, In Dependence. The book is
succinctly described by the author, thus: It is the story of two people
struggling to find themselves and each other – a story of passion and idealism,
courage and betrayal, and the universal desire to fall madly, deep, in love.
Nothing short of this enamoured description of love is depicted by the
storyline. In fact, our students who sat for the current UTME found it morally
distasteful, to say the least."
As
for NECO, the worried parents contend that the curriculum for the junior
secondary school only glamorizes acts of indecency such as rape, violence,
kidnapping, girl defilement and sexualization of knowledge.
Specifically,
attention has been drawn to one of NECO's recommended novellas entitled, The
Precious Child, by Queen O. Okweshine, which leaves very little to the
imagination about the female anatomy. On page 56, the author's rendition of a
male's lust for a "sweet 16" is rather too explicit to be restated
here.
There
is another entitled, "The Tears of a Bride" written by Oyekunle
Oyedeji. The author's steamy muse apparently reaches a climax on page 91 where
he, without care for the sensibilities of the young readers for whom such novel
is meant, graphically paints the picture of a rape with the predator coming out
"of his house bare to the waist and readjust(ing) his wrapper" and
"Romoke (crying) weakly as she comes out from the house holding her
wrapper to her chest to prevent it from falling off her body."
Ha!
By
the way, could this partly explain why, with zippers of their shorts drawn, a
group of male students of a public school in Lagos decided to chase after some
visiting female students like aroused he-goats recently as the new normal?
Perhaps, the naughty boys drew stimulants from Oyedeji's "Satanic
Verses".
Overall,
what is invariably exposed is the failure of gate-keeping at the education
establishment. Just like every other sector of our national life, it is now
possible to smuggle any contraband past even the eye of the needle. Ideally,
texts only get recommended on their own merit after undergoing rigorous
screening by the relevant academic board for depth, relevance and
wholesomeness.
But
the story we hear these days is that publishers/authors now lobby and will give
arm and a leg to have their products listed - the short cut to selling more
copies and smiling to the bank. Regardless of whether it is garbage or
graffiti!
It
will, therefore, not be out of place to link such compromising curricula to the
death of morality and the rise of junk values in our society today.
In
conclusion, let it be made known to the relevant authorities that, on account
of its gravity, official response should not be limited to merely halting
exposing the Nigerian child to the corrupting verses referenced above.
Additional
steps should be taken to ascertain how such texts and others with lurid
contents found their way to the curriculum and all those found culpable along
the chain by acts of either commission or omission should be rounded up and
tried under relevant sections of the Child Protection Act.
No
abuse could be more cruel and indelible on the Nigerian child or more toxic and
terminal to the nation's future.
As always, this write up is thought provoking, all parents n adults should come out n denounce teaching of sex through the syllabus as unhealthy.
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