The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has accused Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun of attempting to Islamise the state but vowed to resist the the alleged move.

Berating Aregbesola in a statement issued yesterday in Abuja, CAN General-Secretary, Reverend (Dr.) Musa Asake, accused the governor of a grand plan to systematically silence Christians in the state. He vowed that CAN would do all within its powers to resist the decision of the Aregbesola administration to send Muslims to Christian missionary schools even as he lambasted the administration for taking a loan from an Islamic bank.

Said Asake: “We’ve been following the events in Osun State. To get to this point where they’re trying to bring some Muslims to mix them with Christian students is a ploy. There is a no pretence about it and we are going to resist it. I totally disagree that the Islamisation of Osun state is not peculiar to the education sector alone. They’ve an agenda.

“If you follow the event in that state and the way the governor is going about doing his own things, he has an agenda. Why is he particular about Christian schools? If he really wants to promote education in that state, why can’t he build other schools? Why is he particular about Christian schools? We Christians can no longer fold our hands and allow them do what they want.”

On the loan issue, Asake said: “The last time, we were also told that the same governor took a loan from an Islamic bank. What does he want to do with that loan? Among all the governors we’ve in Nigeria, how many of them have taken loans from Islamic banks? What is his own plan. Christians are not fighting him.”

The CAN scribe accused the Goodluck Jonathan-led federal government and its predecessors of ignoring the plight of Christians. He said Christians have been reduced to second class citizens in their own country.

According to him, “Forty years ago, under the supervision of a Christian minority head of state, General Yakubu Gowon, someone, somewhere brought the idea that mission schools should be taken over. Now watch! 40 years later, under the supervision of another Christian minority president, Goodluck Jonathan, Almajiri schools have been introduced.

“The school is strictly for Muslim children. These people are never concerned about the Christians. After they took over missionary schools, they’ve not introduced Almajiri schools. They’ve placed Christians as second and third class citizens.

“This time around, we will not allow it happen in Osun state. It’s a ploy to tarnish the entire educational system by bringing the mix up. There is an agenda behind it. At this time around, we cannot just sit down and watch. We are following the events. CAN chapter in Osun State is working hard and we are following. At the appointed time, the National CAN will react seriously.

“The Christians in the state have closed down the schools and my word to the state chapter of CAN is that they must not relent. They must not allow it happen. The governor was elected by both Christians and Muslims. For him to pay attention to the only the welfare of Muslims, it’s absolutely unfair.

“We won’t allow that happen. I challenge all the Christians in the state to rise up and say no. That educational policy can be implemented in any other place, but not in mission schools. The time has come for all the mission schools taken from churches to be returned to them. CAN will no longer fold its hands and allow this happen.”

•Photo shows CAN General-Secretary, Musa Asake.

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