An Islamic human rights organization, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has cried out over what it called the oppression of Muslim nursing students in Nigerian medical colleges.
The group singled out the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan, Oyo State, among other erring nursing institutions and identified legal action and peaceful demonstrations as options on the table against such institutions.
In a statement circulated to the media on Monday, December 16, 2024, the Executive Director of the group, Professor Ishaq Akintola said: “Our headquarters have been inundated with letters, emails, phone calls and text messages containing bitter complaints on how Muslim student nurses are being treated in some medical colleges in Nigeria. The University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, has been fingered as the worst culprit.
“The complainants narrate how trousers are not allowed for Muslim students who desire to use them whereas the council governing the nursing profession states in one of its rules that students can use trousers or gowns.
“It is well known that Islamic rules forbid Muslim females from wearing short skirts or any skimpy dress. The ideal dress for a Muslim female is a long skirt or a skirt that reaches below the knees together with trousers and hijab. Therefore, any educational institution or employer that forces female Muslims to wear short skirts or disallows hijab is deliberately persecuting them.
“It has also been reported that those nursing school authorities now prepare new school rules and regulations that female Muslim nursing students are made to sign or their studentship is revoked.
“The action of the nursing school authorities who disallow female Muslim nursing students from wearing trousers is unlawful, illegal, illegitimate and unconstitutional in so far as it disallows freedom of religion as enshrined in Section 38(i) &(ii) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“To disallow a female Muslim nursing student from dressing the way a Muslim nurse should dress is an offence because the law guarantees her the right to dress like a Muslim. Anything short of that is religious persecution punishable under the law.
“Even new rules and regulations promulgated by any institution have to conform to the Nigerian Constitution; otherwise they are null, void, and ultra vires. Chapter 1, Part 1, Section 1(1) & (3) of the Constitution stipulates, ‘This Constitution is supreme and its provisions shall have binding force on all authorities and persons throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria.’
“In particular, Section 1(3) says, ‘If any other law is inconsistent with the provisions of this Constitution, this Constitution shall prevail, and that other law shall to the extent of the inconsistency be void.’
“Ceteris paribus, rules and regulations (including dress codes or patterns) in institutions of learning and workplaces in Nigeria must not place restrictions on religious belief. They are expected to conform to the complexity of the Nigerian cornucopia with its diverse cultures and faiths. Anything short of this is an invitation to bedlam.
“The current nursing dress code which is being promoted by most nursing school authorities is the short skirt without hijab. This is a Christian fabrication as imported by the British colonial masters whereas we should no longer be tied to the apron strings of the colonialists. It is sheer colonial mentality to insist that nurses in Nigeria must look like British nurses.
“What is in a uniform? Nurses who wear hijab and trousers are equally as smart as others in skimpy skirts. What is important is competence. Afterall hospital wards are not necessarily night clubs for the seduction of men. The more disciplined a nurse, the more competent she is expected to be.
“What the authorities of schools like UCH have failed to realize (or pretended not to know) is that forcing female Muslim nursing students to dress in a manner that conflicts with their faith is justiciable. Any of the Muslim students can sue the school and press for damages running into billions of naira. We have no doubt that heads will begin to roll when UCH realizes its mistakes.
“It was also reported that female Muslim nursing students are not allowed to attend Jumu‘ah prayers on Friday and that lectures are fixed around that period in some nursing schools. Dedicated Muslims sneak out to attend prayers. This is an indictment of those nursing schools. It is unacceptable. It smacks of high-handedness and intolerance of the highest order.
“Nursing students are not kindergarten students. Neither are they slaves to be treated like buffoons. It is even most alarming to learn that perioperative nursing schools which are postgraduate institutions are worse in the handling of their Muslim students.
“This crude, inhuman and despicable treatment of female Muslim nursing students has led to the conversion of many of them to Christianity due to frustration while some others have been intimidated into dropping out of nursing schools. Southern Nigeria in particular has become a wide Siberian field for the forceful conversion of Muslims to Christianity courtesy of carrot and stick antics.
“Acting in loco parentis and in keeping with our vow to protect, promote and project Allah-given fundamental human rights of Nigerian Muslims, MURIC cannot look the other way while a section of the Nigerian Muslim population suffers in the hands of predators and fishers of men.
“Knowing that health and education are vital to development and Muslims need both, Christian officials in Southern Nigeria weaponize them to compel Muslims to convert to Christianity. While Muslims on sick beds are cajoled into submission, Muslims seeking admission into nursing schools are often frustrated in a bid to ensure that the nursing and medical professions are monopolized by Christians.
“We are wondering what these recalcitrant nursing authorities are waiting for before complying with laid-down rules. Could it be a general Muslim reaction or official and timely action by the nursing council?
“We, therefore, call the attention of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria to the excesses, the unlawful and anti-Muslim practices of many of the officials in nursing schools all over Nigeria. We demand immediate intervention before Nigerian Muslims are forced to act. This is how religious crisis is initiated. Labelling Muslim demonstrators ‘fanatics’, ‘fundamentalists’, ‘extremists’, ‘terrorists’, etc will be of no use because provocation and oppression came first. There is no smoke without fire just as there is a symbiotic connection between injustice, provocation, violence and terrorism.
“Those who oppress our daughters, sisters, wives, daughters and mothers in the nursing schools have no moral right to accuse us of terrorism or extremism when we hit the streets in peaceful protests. We will no longer keep quiet while nursing school officials act like demigods over the destinies of our daughters.
“Besides, the nursing schools where those Christian officials play god are funded and salaries are paid from tax payers’ money. Interestingly enough, Nigerian Muslims are the largest tax payers in this country. Those schools belong to us all. Therefore, they should not be used to oppress Muslim nursing students.
“It is better to intervene now than to wait until the Muslims react. A general Muslim reaction may entail peaceful nationwide protests by Muslims over the maltreatment of nursing students and Muslim patients. This may not be quite palatable. There will be no retreat, no surrender, until we liberate our daughters.
“Another option on the table is to leverage on the judicability of the intimidation of Muslim nursing students. Whoever thinks Muslims cannot use either option is underestimating our reach, testing our will. The truth is that we are exercising restraint. But we hope the nursing institutions will not force Nigerian Muslims to that level. Our cause is just, the law is on our side but above all, Allah is with us.”
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