The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Pastor E.A. Adeboye, The founder and lead pastor of the Living Faith Church, Bishop Oyedepo; TREM Pastor, Bishop Mike Okonkwo, Deeper Life Church General Overseer, Pastor W.F Kumuyi and other clerics have ordered Christian students in Nigerian secondary schools to boycott Arabic studies and Islamic studies classes.
The order comes after the Nigerian government removed Christian Religious Studies, CRS, from the secondary schools curriculum and reportedly made Arabic studies and Islamic studies compulsory in schools.
Reacting to the move by the Nigerian government which has been described as a plot to Islamise Nigeria, the National Coordinator of Christian Pentecostal Mission, CPM, Rev. (Dr.) Mercy Ezekiel, Pastor Wale Oke and the General Overseer of the Thronegrace Mission, Pastor Emmanuel Nuhu Kure called for the immediate reversal of the move by the Nigerian government.
Speaking at the meeting, the clerics called for the reversal of the revised Basic Education Curriculum noting that the Christian Religious Studies, CRS, should stand on its own and not be meshed with other subject known as Religion and National Values.
The pastors following the meeting held last week noted that the federal government had no right whatsoever to force Nigerian students at any level to offer Arabic studies.
Following the meeting held in Lagos by the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, Omobude, the PFN National President, Oyedepo, Okonkwo and Wale Oke ordered that Christin students across the country should stand against the move by avoiding such classes.
The religious leaders further added: “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.”
The Living Faith Church founder, David Oyedepo added: “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.”