The lawmakers said the book contains words like “gay”, “eros” and others considered to be “offensive.”...CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
The House of Representatives has asked the federal government and other sub-national governments to ban the use of a popular children textbook, “Queen Primer” in schools across the country…CONTINUE READING>>
The lawmakers asked the federal, state and local governments to ban the book because it contains words like “gay”, “eros” and others considered to be “offensive.”
The call for the ban followed the adoption of a motion moved by Sulaiman Gumi (PDP, Zamfara) on Thursday during plenary.
Moving the motion, Mr Gumi said that there is a covert attempt to slip books with “immoral culture” into primary and secondary schools in Nigeria.
He said, “Queen Primer’ subtly introduces terms like ‘gay’, ‘eros’, etc, that communize sexual perversion and immoral behaviours, thus exposing innocent children to terms inappropriate for their age, which is unlawful, unethical, highly immoral and antithetical to child upbringing.”
The lawmaker said the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) has the statutory responsibility to vet educational material.
Mr Gumi said there is a “need to instil and protect moral values in children and society at large by resisting the use of educational materials that teach or promote any form of alien behaviour which violates the laws and moral values in all educational institutions.”
Speaking in support of the motion, Bello El-Rufai (APC, Kaduna) said he had to withdraw his daughter from a primary school in Abuja for using the book.
Mr El-Rufai, who claimed to speak for the young people, said there is a subtle attempt to “catch young people young” through the books.
“There is an Act and the terms are clear. I will get personal and tell you that I moved my daughter from a school, whose name I will not mention for obvious reasons, and i found out that for nursery school, they thought it was okay for that book to be shared.
“I studied in America for a long time, and one thing that kept me grounded is because of our culture. When we were there, we respected their culture and their ways. The only thing we say is when you are here, you do the same,” Mr El-Rufai said.
The Deputy Speaker, Ben Kalu, who presided over the plenary session, in his contribution, said the parliament has a responsibility to protect Nigerians and future generations.
“As an arm of government, we owe this nation this protection, especially this coming generation,” Mr Kalu said.
In his contribution, Isaka Ibrahim (APC, Ogun), blamed the “moral decadence” facing the country on the forceful collection of schools from the missionaries.
“We started missing it right from when schools were seized from the missionary. Moral decadence is on the high side and needs urgent intervention,” he said.
Following the debate, the House resolved to urge federal, state and local governments to place a total ban on the local production, importation and use of any educational material that contains such words that teach or promote Lesbianism, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) in schools throughout the country.
It also urged the Federal Ministry of Education, the Nigeria Educational Research and Development Council and the Education Research Council (ERC) to carefully vet and censor the contents of educational materials used in Nursery and Primary schools in the country and ensure that they are appropriate and devoid of any connotation of pervasive culture.
The House mandated the Committee on Basic Education to ensure compliance.
Prioritising children’s books as Nigerians grapple with insecurity, worsening economy
While Nigerians are grappling with crippling insecurity across the country and economic challenges like rising cost of living, weakened Naira and inflation, Nigerian lawmakers devoted substantial time to discussing the motion.
Also, there are millions of children out of school, and the government has not been able to address the problem of these out-of-school children estimated at over 13.5 million.
Nigerian lawmakers are often fixated on anti-LGBTQ legislation. In 2013, the two chambers passed the anti-gay legislation which says anyone convicted of getting involved in a gay relationship or entering into a same-sex marriage contract or civil union faces up to 14 years in jail.
In the last Assembly, the House also introduced a bill that sought to criminalise cross-dressing in Nigeria.
Some weeks ago, the Kano State Films and Censorship Board also confiscated over one thousand copies of ‘Queen Primer’…CONTINUE READING>>
