INSTITUTION VERSUS FAITH - IN A RING OF MISPLACED PRIORITIES

Each time I read about Firdaus Amasa, the Unilorin graduate that refused to join the call to bar ceremony because of her Hijab, I question myself about what defines a cause in Nigeria and how self defined interests can be so nationally debated to prove only a religious point. Personally I won't want to talk about the rudeness of  Firdaus at that ceremony as stated by eye witnesses neither will I show interests in physically adorned dress rights.

While religious bodies have turned this matter into a religious cause, it becomes very important for us to ask very pertinent questions as this matter inevitably goes to court after which it will be left again, to fate. We come from a country where nothing is really wrong or right. The worst atrocities against humanity, democracy, faith and ethnic groups has been glossed over in this country without much ado. But when any matter crosses the line with some faiths, heads must unfailingly roll.
Hijab usage is such a big deal in Nigeria. There may even be NGOs that fights such a cause.  Fields of professions have battled it such as medicine, teaching and very many corporate places. But when a lawyer picks the fight against a country's law school, fundamental questions must be asked

Nigerian Law School was set up in 1962 much earlier before Firdaus was born in Nigeria which is a secular nation and not an Islamic republic.

Was Firdaus aware that this school do not allow hijabs to their ceremonies but still decided to enroll for Law in Nigeria and not Iran?

Is Firdaus aware that the name of this school is Nigerian Law school and not Nigerian Islamic Law School?

As Firdaus continued in the University of Ilorin, did she ever get to know that there is a dress code to be worn to the call to bar ceremony of the Nigerian Law school?

Is Firdaus aware that there are several other religions like the catholics, deeper life and African Traditional worshippers that have a religious dress code they will like to wear but they conform to show respect to the institutions where they belong?

What impact will it have if other faiths all wear their own dress codes to call to bar ceremonies?

Are we saying that the Nigerian Law school does not respect faiths because it decided to set her own dress code?

If no, Must the dress code be changed for just one faith and leave others?

Was the law to avoid  religious dress codes set up to tolerate other faiths considering Nigeria's diversity?

In what way does this Hijab argument improve the lives of Nigerians, Nigerian Law school, the Nigerian Judiciary or the Nigerian Justice System?

If every faith should wear their minimum dresses to every school or institution, there will be need to first collapse the entire professional dress code.  You cannot ban a deeper life member's pitting skirt or the different accessories of Yoruba traditional religious attires and tell someone to cap on.

Dressing does not make students more brilliant neither does it heighten spirituality. It is strictly for uniformity and to maintain proud institutional identity. It also portrays a level of order and compliance in line with the school’s mandate and ethics. The Nigerian legal dress code is noble enough for respect anywhere in the world. If its no more wanted then it must be outrightly outlawed.

The argument that kenyan or American lawyers wear hijabs and all that should hold no water. If they do not have a law that states exact legal dress code, then, they have broken no law. In Nigeria there is one and it should be respected.

The court of Appeal in its judgment in ‘The Provost, Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin & 2 Ors v. Bashirat Saliu & 2 Ors (CA/IL/49/2006), and Asiyah & Ors v. LASG & Ors (2016), 15 NWLR (Pt 1535) 117, where the court declared that the use of hijab by female Muslim students constitutes an act of worship and preventing them is an infraction of their rights should be a judgment for all. Catholic sisters, Deeper Life Members, ATR worshippers should all go to court and get their own judgments.

The argument that wig and gown all have Judeo/Christian neo-colonialist origin that should be done away with is another senseless argument. Olokun worshippers or olumba olumbas will not stop learning algebra because it was propounded by Al-Kwarzimi, a Muslim. Parting with models and methods with Judeo-Christian origins is like parting with more than 70% of the technologies and life saving methods  we all use today.

How better will it be if Firdaus helps us deal with the Nigerian thieves that steal billions of petrodollars and come out to contest?  How exciting will I be to see her join the cause of the chibok girls? We would have adorned her in that Hijab.  We should not be dressed in an activism that is protected by  bigotry to express extremism. Nigeria is a country of 182 million people of diverse faiths and a man's religion should be his business and not a burden on the laws of secular institutions or a secular society.

Should these kinds of clamour for beards, religious accessories, long skirts and short trousers jump into the Nigerian Military or paramilitary, we may need to fight harder against the lawlessness, disorderliness and chaos that can emanate from that imbroglio. I hope that one day we will all be able to talk to God. We will ask him that day  if he was really the one that created us together and yet left us with all this confusion.