Top Christian religion leaders have all kicked against the alleged imposition of Arabic studies on Christian students in Secondary schools in Nigeria.
Pastor Enoch Adeboye, Bishop Mike Okonkwo of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM); Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living Faith Church; Rev. Felix Omobude and Pastor W.F. Kumuyi of Deeper Life Church, have all ordered Christian students to boycott the compulsory Arabic classes.
It was gathered that the top pastors spoke, last week, after a meeting in Lagos under the auspices of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN).
According to a report by Vanguard, the pastors at the meeting called for immediate reversal of the revised Basic Education Curriculum, especially the removal of Christian Religious Studies as part of an subject known as Religion and National Values, and maintained that Christian Religious Studies should stand on its own as a separate subject just as it has always been.
They criticised the move to impose Arabic Studies on every secondary school student in the country, stating that the federal government has no right to force any Nigerian student at any level to study Arabic Studies.
The leaders urged the Christian students all over Nigeria to “not attend Arabic classes” claiming that the government has no authority to force the children to attend the classes.
Omobude, who is the PFN national president, Oyedepo and Okonkwo all said: “We are aware of orchestrated plans to subtly use this policy as a means of forceful religious indoctrination and we maintain our stand against it.”
“Government has no right to force subjects on any any Nigerian child neither does it have the authority to drop Christian Religious Studies at the Senior Secondary School level while asking him/her to continue to read Islamic Studies which he/she cannot do at university level.”
Bishop Oyedepo said, emphasising that by stopping Christian Religion Studies, CRS, automatically meant that it would not be embraced at the tertiary institutions.
