Kwara State governor AbdulRahman Aabdulrasaq on Tuesday said every Muslim girl who chooses to wear hijab to schooling the state has the right to do so.
Abdulrasaq in a statement by his spokesperson Rafiu Ajakaye said “Kwara State is a plural society whose diversity and peaceful coexistence as the southernmost northern state are its most unique selling points.”
READ MORE: Kwara State approves hijab for Muslim schoolgirls
He noted that there is a “subsisting Court judgments which were built on the Constitution, federal and state laws, principle of pluralism, and sanctity of the right of every person to their identity, especially in public space, the use of hijaab in public schools is a constitutional right that the government shall protect for anyone and everyone willing to use it.”
The Kwara governor was reacting to the recent controversy on schoolgirls’ right to wear hijab to school.
In the past, the hijab controversy had resulted in violent clashes between different religious groups in the state.
The governor said he “condemns the reckless attempts by some fifth columnists to polarise our state along religious lines, using the settled question of hijaab in public schools as a smokescreen to advance their evil intent.
READ MORE: Many injured as protest breaks out over use of Hijab in Kwara school
“The government’s strategic patience in the handling of delicate matters involving the people it swore to protect is not same as pandering to anyone’s whims.”
Abdulrasaq said he “stands firmly by the government’s policy on the permissibility of hijaab for every Muslim girl child who desires to wear it in all public schools.”
The governor appealed to the people of the state to not allow agents of fake news and disinformation to mislead them and set them against one another.
“This administration, to be sure, is beholden only to the law, truth and fairness to all at all times,” Ajakaye said.
