Nigeria

Libya's centrally planned economy depends primarily upon revenues from the Petroleum sector, which contributes practically all export earnings and over half of GDP.

As for the rest, I'm assuming falls under the category of 'Natural oil' and ETC

Labor Laws

The administration of labour is regulated by Labour Decree No. 21 of 1974 and its subsequent amendments.

General Requirements.

Not later than three months after the beginning of a worker's period of employment, the employer shall give to the worker a written statement/contract specifying:

(a) The name of the employer or group of employer or group of employers and, where appropriate, of the undertaking by which the worker is employed.

(b) The name and address of the worker and the place and date of his engagement.

(c) The nature of the employment.

(d) If the contract is for a fixed term, the date when the contract expires.

(e) The appropriate period of notice to be given by the party wishing to terminate the contract.

(f) The rates of wages and method of calculation thereof and the manner and periodicity of payment of wages.

(g) Any terms and conditions relating to:

(i) hours of work, or

(ii) holidays and holiday pay, or

(iii) incapacity for work due to sickness or injury, including any

provisions for sick pay.

(h) Any special conditions of the contract, if, after the date to which the

the statement relates, there is a change in the terms to be included or referred to in the statement, the employer:

(i) Shall, not more than one month after the change, inform the worker of the nature of the change by a written statement;

(j) If it does not leave a copy of the statement with the workers, shall preserve the statement and ensure that the worker has reasonable opportunities of reading it in the course of his employment, or that it is made reasonably accessible to the worker in some other way.

Termination of Employment

A contract of employment may be terminated by either the employer or employee on the expiration of notice given by one party to the other party of his intention to do so.

A one day notice may be given where the contract has been in existence for a period of three months or less. For a contract that has continued for between three months and five years or more, the notice which shall be in writing shall be for a period ranging from one week to one month depending on the duration of the contract.

Employee Remuneration

Wages and salaries are normally paid weekly, bi-monthly or monthly. Fringe benefits usually paid to workers including housing allowance, travelling allowance annual holidays with pay, leave bonus, pension and gratuity contributions, meal subsidies, provision of housing, medical and transportation.

Employers are not permitted to make deductions from employees' remuneration other than those prescribed by law and collective bargaining agreements such as taxes under the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system, contributions to trade union and contributions to provident and pension funds. Other deductions that could be made include overpayment of wages and advances given. The total amount of deductions that may be made in any month shall not be greater than one third of the employee's wages for the month. Overtime is payable at rates stipulated by the employer.

Restrictions on Employment of Foreigners

Visa and Work Permits - A non-Nigerian requires the consent of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to do business in Nigeria. The approval is conveyed in a letter styled business permit.

Expatriate Quota

On application to the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs, approval can be given to a company proposing to employ expatriates for senior management, technical or specialist posts. Approval will not normally be given to employ expatriates to do jobs for which there are suitably qualified Nigerians, it is therefore the responsibility of an applicant to prove that the employment of an expatriate is unavoidable.

The expatriate quota approval for a new company with non-Nigerian participation is usually stated in the business permit. An increase in expatriate quota and the number of expatriates approved for a wholly indigenous company is usually conveyed in a letter from the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs.

An expatriate quota is granted for specific jobs and, generally, is for a specific number of years except for one or two key personnel the quota for whom may be permanent until reviewed. Capitalization of 5 million attracts an automatic quota of two while a capitalization of 10 million or more attracts four.

Residence Permits

When an expatriate quota is granted, application is made through the appropriate Nigerian Embassy or High Commission abroad for resident permits (entry permits). This is in addition to visa requirements where applicable. Generally, evidence of academic, professional or technical qualification and/or experience is required to be produced. A person (usually the prospective employer) resident in Nigeria must give a written undertaking to bear all immigration responsibilities in respect of person(s) covered by the application.

Families

Wives and children of expatriates with entry permits are also granted entry permits freely on application, but they require specific permission to work in Nigeria except on a voluntary non-remuneration basis for charity.

Visa

Generally, a foreigner requires a visa to enter Nigeria. The only exception relates to citizens of member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) who required only entry permits. The former exemption granted to Commonwealth citizens from the requirement to obtain information from the nearest Nigerian Embassy or High Commission seeking clarification concerning their status.

Leave

An expatriate on leave is counted as part of the quota.

Returns

Periodic returns in respect of expatriate quota in a specified form have to be submitted to the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs. Failure to do so may create embarrassment.

Final Departure

When an expatriate employee leaves Nigeria finally, the Department of Immigration must be informed.

Visitors' Permits

It is possible to obtain visitors' permits on application to the Nigerian High Commission or Embassy abroad. Permits are usually granted for 28 days but the visitor must have a return ticket on arrival in Nigeria. Persons with visitors' permits must not take up employment in Nigeria.

Temporary Quota

The Immigration Department may, on application, grant a temporary expatriate quota for a short period. A temporary quota is usually for specialists required for, say, three months to install or service a special type of machine or equipment. Non residents negotiating one-time contract work in Nigeria should discuss the immigration implications with the prospective employer, particularly where the non-resident intends to apply for exemption from incorporating a local company under Sections 56-60 of the Companies and Allied Matters Decree, 1990. In such a situation, the Nigerian employer may have to apply directly to the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs for a special quota for the purpose of the job.

Employees' Associations and Labour Unions

Provision is made in the labour laws for the formation of employers' associations and trade/labour unions on the basis of similarity of business interest or occupations. At present, there are 42 Trade Labour unions memberships and 19 Senior Staff Associations' in the country.

Social Security

Both employer and employees contribute to approved provident funds. In some cases, employees do not make any contribution to pension funds. The eligibility of a worker to benefit from pensions, retirement or gratuity schemes varies from one employment to another. Invariably, the terms are contained in contracts of employment or collective bargaining agreements with registered trade unions. Social security schemes are approved by the Joint Tax Board and subject to renewal annually.

Other Benefits

Other benefits include maternity leave and pay, medical and year-end bonuses.

Workmen's Compensation

Employers are obliged to provide accident insurance for their employees

Reference

The Generals, NLC & Trade Union Bill

By

Professor Dafe Otobo

Department of Industrial Relations and Personnel Management, University of Lagos.

This voluntary principle was also evident at the level of central trade unionism, where multiple labour centres always existed since mid-1940s. Trade unions and their members met and, without obtaining the permission of any one, formed their central labour organisations and registered themselves with the Registrar of Trade Unions in the Ministry of Labour. In turn, respective federal and regional governments were free to recognise whichever central labour organisation they liked, thus except for short spells of 1944-45, 1948-1951, 1954-1956, 1959-1960, 1962 and December 1975, when one central labour organisation was voluntarily created by workers themselves, the norm was to have one officially recognised central body coexisting with two or three others. And almost without fail, the central body recognised by the government had a minority of trade unions affiliated to it.

Anyway, as at 1974, the four central labour organisations were the Wahab Goodluck-led Nigerian Trade Union Congress (NTUC), the Michael Imoudu-led Labour Unity Front (LUF), the Ramos -led Nigerian Workers Council (NWC), and the Kaltungo/Odeyemi-led United Labour Congress of Nigeria (ULCN) which enjoyed government's recognition and patronage. The fifth, Ibrahim Nock-led Northern Federation of Labour (NLF), had become moribund. For many reasons and several developments which need not concern us here, including pressure from workers themselves, labour leaders initiated a move to form one central labour organisation. By April 1974, all the four central labour centres had dissolved themselves, and returned their respective certificate of registration to the Registrar of Trade Unions and announced the formation of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and fixed its inaugural conference for 18 December 1975. The NLC was thus a voluntary merger of the four centres.

As the day drew closer, the prospect of one central labour organisation formed by workers and their leaders on their own steam appeared too threatening to the military regime which now actively sought to either influence the process or abort it altogether if that attempt proved unsuccessful. First, Paschal Bafyau and his friends in the defunct ULCN formed the Progressive Front for the Labour Movement, while Hudson Momodu and his cronies from the NTUC formed the Committee of Trade Unions in Defence of Trade Union Rights to protest the inauguration of the NLC. Both organisations, in well co-ordinated and orchestrated moves, inundated the Federal Ministry of Labour with petitions alleging, among others, foreign interventionŒ in the labour movement and that positions in the NLC had been 'slated' and thus the impending elections at the inauguration were a farce. The Bafyau's outfit issued a press release on 15 December calling for an investigation of the affairs of the four defunct central labour organisations and the assets of their leaders. The regime, on its own part, on the night of 17 December got police to occupy the offices of the four merging centres, removed documents and files and arrested about 100 trade unionists, including all top labour leaders, but released them soon afterwards.

The NLC was duly inaugurated amidst fanfare, and Wahab Goodluck and Chief Odeyemi emerged president and general secretary respectively. However, another general, Major General Adefope, the Commissioner for Labour, on the same day at a press conference announced that the military regime would proscribe certain international labour organisations 'so as to remove completely ideological or external influences which have plagued Nigerian trade union unity for more than a quarter of a century." And this was followed, the next day, by the new President of the new NLC, Wahab Goodluck, along with Dr Tunji Otegbeye and Kunle Oyero, being arraigned before a Lagos magistrate's court on charges of transacting activities of a banned political party and remanded in custody until 30 January 1976. The case was later thrown out for want of evidence, and one needed no crystal glass or babalawo's cowries to see that the military regime was trying to intimidate the new leadership of the NLC for reasons not unconnected with its failure to impose a leadership, and the fact that Wahab Goodluck was the President of the NTUC, a labour centre clearly not liked by it and by western countries on account of its links with the communist-controlled World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) and the Dr Otegbeye-led Socialists Workers and Farmers Party of Nigeria.

At a subsequent post-inaugural press conference, Major General Adefope specifically mentioned the banned international labour organisations, excluding only the ILO and the Organisation of Africa Trade Union Unity (OATUU) and the International Trade Secretariats (ITSs); announced a new policy of 'limited intervention' and of 'guided democracy' in trade union matters, and that a national institute for labour studies was to be established, and trade unions would be reorganised along industrial lines to accelerate the formation of bigger and more viable amalgamations and federations of trade unions. He ended with the institution of a judicial tribunal to investigate the former four central bodies, their assets and liabilities, which indirectly meant the new NLC. When established in March 1976, the tribunal became known as the Adebiyi Tribunal because it was headed by Mr Justice Adebiyi of the Lagos High Court, while a committee headed by a Michael Abiodun, a former senior labour officer and now tagged "Administrator of Trade Union Affairs", was saddled with the responsibility of appointing union delegates to seminars and conferences abroad, drawing up a code of conduct for trade unionists, supervising the restructuring of the nearly a thousand trade unions into industrial unions and drawing up a model constitution for the projected industrial unions.

But before both the Adebiyi Tribunal and Abiodun Committee completed their respective tasks early February 1978, General Gowon had been overthrown, his successor, General Murtala, killed in a botched coup, and two other generals, General Obasanjo and General Shehu Yar'Adua had emerged to head the new military regime. The Obasanjo regime in its White Paper accepting most of the recommendations of the Adebiyi Tribunal, while finding none of the major labour leaders guilty of corruption, still managed to decree that eleven of them be banned for life from trade union activities, and all assets of the four central labour centres be confiscated by the military government. The Abiodun Committee, which benefited enormously from the inputs of respective labour leaders, created some seventy unions, forty-three so-called industrial unions for junior staff, eighteen senior staff associations, and nine employers' organisations.

The NLC was re-inaugurated on 28 February 1978 amidst fanfare, at which Hassan Sunmonu and Dangiwa were elected president and general secretary respectively. General Shehu Yar'Adua, who represented the military regime at the re-inauguration of the NLC, said that the regime would provide start-up funds and financial support generally in the form that would not prejudice the independence of the NLC, and warned against intransigence, violence and blackmail in the conduct of trade disputes.

The Trade Union (Amendment) Decree No 22 of 1978 which gave statutory backing to these reforms, not only recognised the NLC as the only central labour organisation in the country, the industrial unions were also mentioned by name as the only industrial unions and forced to affiliate to the NLC, while the senior staff associations were statute-barred from doing so. The Decree also provided for compulsory recognition of trade unions by employers and introduced compulsory check-off system for deriving union dues, while requiring industrial unions to pay ten per cent of their income as affiliation dues to the NLC. In all, constitutions were imposed on the NLC and the industrial unions.

Within one year, the military regime had changed its mind on the industrial union of Customs and Immigration workers and deregistered them, thereby reducing the number of industrial unions to forty-one in 1978. While the NLC and the industrial unions long sought a further restructuring on account of jurisdictional problems thrown up by the new union structure and established committees for such a purpose, it was General Abacha's regime that decisively co-ordinated these pressures and demands to enable a new structure of 29 industrial unions to emerge. It also issued two anti-union decrees, one proscribing international affiliation by unions and the NLC, the other making a distinction between 'card-carrying' and 'non-card-carrying' members all in an effort to prevent Adams Oshiomhole and other trade union leaders from being eligible to stand elections. Before then, General Babangida's regime, in its attempts to punish the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the NLC and the two unions in the oil and gas sector, NUPENG and PENGASSAN, amended the Trade Union Decree to prevent senior staff associations from utilising compulsory check-off system for deriving their membership dues, while dissolving their national executive committees and throwing some of their leaders into detention. It was the policy of limited intervention and guided democracy at work!

The democratic dispensation since 1999 has encouraged many to demand a review of many draconian laws in the statute books, including a review of the country's constitution itself. Evident from the narration is that decrees have had a more punitive character than being informed by the wish to improve upon relations in industry on which productivity and continuous production so depended. As for labour law, more concrete steps have been taken since 1999 with organised private sector, organised labour and government forming a tripartite technical committee, assisted by the ILO's Nigerian Declaration Project, that has been reviewing it to make recommendations that should form the basis for a comprehensive reform of law and of practices and processes in the industrial relations system. Even before this tripartite committee is done, comes President Obasanjo's proposed Trade Union (Amendment) Act of 2003.

In critically examining the proposed amendments, it is important that we pull ourselves away from largely unproductive and unilluminating posturing of filing either behind the President or organised labour as represented by the NLC. The President has repeatedly said that he is committed to complying with the Conventions of the ILO that govern trade union matters and industrial relations, and Nigeria having ratified them since 1960, he must be commended for his courageous move at extolling and cementing principles that are germane to democratic industrial existence. We shall examine the underlying principles of the Conventions this government is now respecting, unlike the Abacha and other military regimes, and place the proposed provisions of the projected amendments side by side with them, and conclusions can then be drawn purely on these grounds.

The voluntary principle is important to and for the workings of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), an organ of the United Nations based in Geneva, that drew, and still draws, its delegates from government, private employer and workers representatives of its member-countries. The deliberations of the ILO Conference, freely and voluntarily involving all the parties, become Conventions that deal with most facets of work and labour, which ratifying member-countries know to be binding and are required to amend their national labour law to reflect. However, unlike the Nuclear Arms Non-Proliferation Treaty that has the International Atomic Energy Agency to continually monitor and maintain surveillance and bilateral and multi-lateral sanctions can be imposed on erring signatories, the ILO is limited to moral suasion and exposure of offending member-countries in getting them to meet their obligations. Fortunately, however, unlike the nuclear situation that a signatory can for a while evade by hiding its nuclear armament programme, existing practices in industry and labour laws regulating them proclaim loudly the degree of compliance ¤ especially as workers and employers and their organisations react to their circumstances.

Of all the conventions, Convention 87 which covers the freedom of association and protection of the right to organise, and Convention 98 on the right to organise and collective bargaining, both ratified by Nigeria, are most relevant to our purpose. The proposed amendments, we have been told, are to uphold the voluntary principle in a) formation of trade unions; b) membership of trade unions; c) payment of membership dues; d) formation of trade union federations; e) formation of central labour organisations; f) collective bargaining, and g) strike actions. We now take a closer look.

On the formation and membership of trade unions, the voluntary principle as enshrined in Convention 87 and intended by the proposed Section 12 means that the Nigerian worker should enjoy the right to join and form a union of his/her choice. This section ought then be further amended to remove the government-imposed separation of industrial unions from senior staff associations. Workers have been forced into these unions against their wishes. A further implication of this is that all the 29 industrial unions and existing senior staff associations should be removed from the law as the boundaries of voluntarily formed unions are yet to be determined by the workers who would form them. Even after the new unions have been formed, it would amount to industrial disenfranchisement for the unions to be specifically listed as the only unions because developments in industry and economy could lead to the creation of new skills and new work groups that would wish to constitute themselves into unions. A case in point is the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) which, by existing provision of the Act that remains unaffected by President Obasanjo's proposed amendments, is an illegal body on account of not being listed. Also, since membership is voluntary, listing any union by name prevents workers who wish to leave a union to form another from doing so, thereby indirectly compelling them to stay on. The possibility of being able to break away to form another body acts as a deterrent against dictatorial tendencies and works in favour of good governance.

Aside from dictatorial tendencies, there appears to be no convincing grounds for denying the right to form trade unions to the police, customs, immigration, and several categories of civil servants in currently labelled 'essential services'. Nigeria has the widest definition of 'essential service' in the world because of its politicisation by successive military regimes which, since the mid-1970s, expected the classification itself to be a sufficient anti-strike medicine instead of more sensible compensation and employment policies. The Abacha regime, for example, extended the label to include all educational institutions in its bid to muzzle ASUU and other protesting teachers. It is not merely a question of these public servants having their own trade unions or associations as elsewhere in the world, but also of their democratic right and the fact that historical evidence indicates the denial of these rights to them by restrictive legislation, 'in the public interest', merely served to render most of the essential services unattractive places to work in for a majority of workers, their epileptic services working very much against public interest the legislation was supposed to be protecting, and their being mostly corruptly mismanaged in an authoritarian environment contributing in no small way to our huge external debts and clamour for privatisation. Thus, aside from the military (and intelligence agencies), which is not a voluntary institution, the freedom of association and right to organise and collective bargain should be enjoyed by all public servants. It is either self-deception or misplaced expectations that politicians can look after the work interests of public servants better than their own voluntary unions or associations. Chronic crises dominating public sector industrial relations in the country are eloquent testimony.

A related issue is the minimum number of persons required to form a trade union. The 1938 Trade Union Ordinance stipulated five persons, the figure currently standing at fifty. With an overwhelming majority of businesses employing less than fifty workers in the country, a majority of workers are officially denied the right of freedom of association, right to organise and collective bargain. Some observers argued in the past that the figure of five was too permissive, too low, but one has also pointed out that there was no union with only five members. Clearly, the minimum number of fifty should not be retained in the amended law.

Going with the formation of a union is the question of its recognition, and in this connection the powers of the Minister of Employment, Labour & Productivity and Registrar of Trade Unions would need to be reviewed. Both officers have powers to cancel registration of any union. As it is, the refusal of the Registrar to register a union prevents it from functioning as such. In reality, therefore, the Registrar, taking instructions from the Minister, decides on which union should exist irrespective of the wishes of its members and employers who have recognised them. The office of the Registrar of Trade Unions under the new law should function like the Corporate Affairs Commission that merely keeps records of business names, ensures that no duplication of names occurs, etc.

On membership dues, the proposed Section 16A, not only reinforces the control-function of registration and recognition, also states that an employer 'may, subject to the express consent of a worker who is eligible and willing to be a member of any trade union, make deductions from the wages of such worker for the purposes of paying contributions to the trade union so registered.' Also, 'provided that compliance with the provisions of this section shall be subject to the insertion of a "no strike' clause in the relevant collective bargaining agreement between the workers and their employers.' The latter clause violates many ILO Conventions, especially Convention 98 on the right to organise and collective bargain, including democratic and contractual rights enjoyed by parties to an agreement. First, there is no connection between membership dues and a collective agreement voluntarily negotiated between two parties in industry. Second, the philosophy underlying deregulation and privatisation is the freedom of private parties to own and operate their businesses without undue official interference and when such investors/employers negotiate agreements with workers within their domains, the government is hardly in a position to demand or insist that a "no-strike' clause be inserted in a contract it is not a party to ¤ especially as the interests involved are those of the parties themselves and not the public's. There are many collective agreements in the country where both parties have themselves agreed on inserting a "no strike' clause, and this is what it should be. The government should commence the construction of more jails and police stations and recruit thousands more constables who would have to arrest thousands of workers that will routinely go on strike against the "no strike' clause itself. Third, the said clause makes a mockery of collective bargaining, and puts workers into the negotiation ring with their hands tied behind their backs. Fourth, it represents a poorly veiled attack on the finances of the trade unions by making deductions of union dues conditional upon insertion of the "no strike' clause. Indeed, not only is the "no work no pay' policy being retained for individual union members or workers, for the union a proposed Chapter 7, Section 17(2)(d) prohibits the deduction of dues for the period of strike 'in breach of collective bargaining agreement between workers and the employer.' Fifth, it is an indirect way of banning strikes and criminalizing industrial behaviours and other forms of industrial conflict which employers themselves recognise to be legitimate democratic responses.

Regarding the formation of federation of trade unions, the new proposal is that any two or more trade unions irrespective of any differences in their trade, occupation or industry may form a federation, provided that the unions concerned in a secret ballot pass such a resolution by a simple majority and notify the Registrar of Trade Unions not less than thirty days before the date of such a ballot by completing and submitting a prescribed form setting out the resolution to same. The issue here is not whether the conditions are stringent or not. Rather, the voluntary principle precludes the imposition of conditions by external parties. If the argument in support of this clause is the protection of union members from a handful of presumably empire-seeking union leaders or the protection of public interest however defined, it is odd that politicians who have experienced great difficulty forming and managing their own political parties would assume thousands of very alert workers who are sustaining their unions through their hard-earned wages would be railroaded into larger federations. Workers and their trade unions, like other clubs, societies and voluntary organisations in the country, should establish their own rules and write their own constitutions.

Of immediate concern to the NLC is the proposed Section 13(3), which says 'the Registrar shall remove from the register the NLC as the only central labour organisation in Nigeria.' For reasons already mentioned, there is indeed no good reason why the NLC or the name of any union should be mentioned in the amended Trade Union Act. The Registrar of Trade Unions can keep his record of existing unions, union federations and central labour organisations for those who wish to know. The most important thing is for the voluntary principle to be applied right across board, and not selectively. For example, it would be up to the affiliates of the central labour organisation to decide on affiliation dues not the Act imposing a maximum of ten per cent of union dues: all clubs and societies fix their own membership dues or subscriptions, not the government. Again, if the official concern is the prevention of exploitation of members through exorbitant dues, it is misdirected because we are here dealing with the bulk of workers who find it difficult to make ends meet, and no union leader can coerce them into paying more than what they are willing to as dues. At any rate, union membership is voluntary.

Lastly, the right to strike is not absolute in any country and is often hedged or qualified. However, the proposed mandatory insertion of "no strike' clause in collective agreements is tantamount to prohibiting strikes in those companies or industries where workers and employers have negotiated collective agreements as earlier remarked. But, then, a proposed new Section 33 under Chapter 14 states: ' No trade union or registered federation of trade union, by whatever name called, shall embark on a strike action unless upon a resolution approving the strike action, passed by at least two-thirds majority of delegates representing all the members of the union or federation of trade unions in secret ballot held at a meeting for that purpose.' It would be an interesting scenario if trade unions were to include a clause in their own constitutions requiring two-thirds votes of delegates by secret ballot to call off a strike action.

Labour law in Nigeria includes many legislative pieces or Acts, the core ones being the Labour (or Employment) Act, Workmen's Compensation Act, Factories Acts, Trade Disputes Act and the Trade Union Act. Each and every one of these requires major and detailed review, and thus singling out the Trade Union Act for patchy amendment would be a futile exercise. For example, the insertion of the "no strike' clause in collective agreements would have the effect of rendering obsolete both the Industrial Arbitration Panel and the National Industrial Court (two disputes and conflict-regulating institutions central to the Trade Disputes Act) because the criminalisation of strikes and other forms of industrial conflict would make the ordinary law courts very busy indeed and thus disastrous to the parties in industry who have to wait years for cases to be decided. In which case, the only way employers can get work to continue while awaiting court proceedings to conclude is to obtain court injunctions, assuming striking workers comply.

From this and our analysis, it is easy to reach the conclusion that the proposed Trade Union (Amendment) Act of 2003 in its present form is ill-suited to the needs of the parties in industry, piece-meal and has not been carefully thought-through. It seems somewhat contradictory, if not counterproductive, to embark on large-scale deregulation of the economy and privatisation of public enterprises and yet pass labour laws that increase government interference in the bilateral and internal affairs of the parties in industry who are supposed to be pulling the economy out of the current mess. The aim should be laws facilitating less adversarial industrial relationships and increased productivity. The technical committee should be allowed to finish its work for labour law reforms to be comprehensive and useful to all.

Social is an adjective. Culture is a noun.

Put them together and no good can come of it.

MUSLIM EDUCATIONAL REFORM IN SOUTH WESTERN NIGERIA

BY

DR. ADEBAYO RAFIU IBRAHIM

The Yorubas are certainly not of the Arabian Family, and could not have come from Mecca…that is to say the Mecca unviersally known in history…. And no such account as above are found in the records of Arabian writers of any king of Mecca; an event of such importance could hardly have passed unnoticed by their historians. (Johnson, 1976:5)

Meanwhile, that the Yoruba came from the East has been asserted though the actual town of departure remains unknown. Johnson (1976:6) confirms that:

The Yorubas came originally from the East, there can not be any slightest doubt, as their habits, manners and customs etc, all go to approve. With them the East is Mecca and Mecca is the East….. everything that comes from the East, with them, comes from Mecca and hence it is natural to represent themselves as having hailed from that city.

The actual date of introduction of Islam to South Western Nigeria is unknown. However, Balogun (1998) has confirmed that Islam made headway into the land for the first time around the second half of the eleventh century by the Murabitun mistakenly taken by some historians as Hausas. The nomenclature "Imale" given to Islam in the south-western Nigeria gives the impression that the religion came from Mali and spread by the Murabitun whom they believed to be Malians. This confirms the submission of Al-Aluri (1978) that Islam made its appearance in Yorubaland in the 13th century during the tenure of Mansa Musa of Mali. Danmole (1981) also claimed to have come accross some Muslims in Oke-Imale Ilorin who claimed that their ancestors came from Mali to settle in the town. He however doubted the authenticity of this claim since it was not possible that these Ilorin Muslims were descendants of Wangara lineages which traced their origin to old Mali:

Since a lot has been said and written on Islam in some states of the South Western Nigeria, this paper does not intend to recapitulate this. Our focus is to examine the various phases of development that Muslim education in this geographical delineation have undergone and the level of reforms in the Muslim education in the land right from the pre-colonial era to the post colonial era.

MUSLIM EDUCATION IN SOUTH WESTERN NIGERIA: FEATURES AND CHARACTERISTICS

The history of Muslim education in the South Western Nigeria is as old as the history of Islam in the land. As it was impossible to carry out some religious rituals without reading in Arabic, it became expedient for the Mallams spreading the religion to teach the new converts some portions of the Qur'an in Arabic and this attempt culminated in the establishment of Qur'anic schools in the area. Mosques were majorly used for this purpose, while in some cases residences of the mallams as well as tree shades were used as schools. The venues of the schools suggested why educational facilities that could aid teaching and learning were totally inadequate. Mats and ram or cow skin were the common furniture in such schools. The only recommended text by then was Qaidat Baghdadiyyah-an Arabic text for beginners which contains Arabic alphabets in various forms as well as the last juz'u of the Qur'an. It is after the completion of this text that pupils could move to learn the whole Qur'an.

Generally speaking, learning was by rote-a method, which is indispensable in learning any langauge. The school calendar was holiday free as the school was in session throughout the year with the exception of Thursdays, Fridays, Salah days and at times in Ramadan. The school programme was in no way disrupted by any persistent strike or closure and so there was uninterrupted academic session except when the Mallam was bereaved, fell sick or travelled. There was intermittent organization of feasts to mark the gradual movement of students from short chapters of the Qur'an to longer ones. This method was used to encourage lazy students to sit up. As such, on getting to chapter 105 (suratul-fil), a fowl feast is made. On chapter 96 (suratul 'Alaq) cooked beans and Eko are prepared. On chapter 87 (suratul-a'la), a fowl feast is made. On reaching chapter 55(suratur-Rahman), a he-goat feast in made. On chapter 36 (suratu-yasin), a ram is slaughtered and finally on the completion of the whole Qur'an, an elaborate feast where a cow in slaughtered is organised (Nasiru, 1977).

After the successful completion of the Qur'an, the pupil moves to the learning of aspect of Fiqh through the use of such fiqh books as al-Akhdari, al-Ashmawi, Muqadimatul 'Iziyyah, Risala and Mukhtasarul-Khalil all written by expert calligraphists.

The consciousness of the Muslims in the issue of giving their children and wards Islamic education led to the problem of manpower in most of the Islamic schools. As such, the teacher had to attend to quite a good number of students of different level and background at the same time. This usually made the class rowdy and lazy students could not be easily identified.

The rate of development of Muslim education in the South Western Nigeria was not as fast as that of Borno and Hausaland. Balogun (1998) advances two reasons for this, namely, lack of direct trade link with the Arab world and the geography of the area which by its density was frightful for strangers to penetrate. In addition to this, Muslim education at its initial stage in Yorubaland did not enjoy the royal patronage as it did in Hausaland. Except in rare cases where spiritual assistance was rendered by Muslim scholars to some town were the Muslim scholars accommodated comfortably. Oba Adele (1775-78) who supported Islam and the Muslims did so at the expense of his throne in 1780 (Al-Ilory, 1990). This is not to say that the obas did not support the Muslim mallams that came to settle in their domains; rather, the mallams were patronized majorly for healing and medication rather than education.

Sheikh Muhammad Belgore (d. 1913) was said to have established schools for fiqh, tafsir, hadith and tawhid. Gradually students who came to study in Ilorin started establishing their Islamic schools in their respective settlements. As a result of this, Islamic centres were established in such towns as Shaki, Iseyin, Ibadan, Iwo, Epe, Ede, Ikirun, Badagry, and Ilaro. Thus Islamic learning had reached an appreciable level before the introduction of western system of education to the South - Western Nigeria. Muslim Education versus Western Education:The period between the Jihad of Shaykh Uthman Dan Fodiyo and the colonial period marked a new epoch in Islamization process in Nigeria. In Yorubaland, the proliferation of Quranic and Ilmi schools was witnessed. Towns like Abeokuta, Epe, Iseyin, Iwo and Ibadan became important Islamic centres. The introduction of Western type of education which followed the coming of Christian missionaries to Nigeria geared up the Muslims to be up and doing in their Educational programme especially when they sensed that this new education programme was a threat to their religion and that it was meant to promote and propagate the rival religion - Christianity.

The Wesleyan Methodists' arrival to Badagry in September 1842 marked the beginning of the western type of education in Nigeria. This was when Rev. Thomas Birch Freeman and Mrs. De Graft first established a school in Badagry. By December 1842, the Church Missionary Society (C.M.S.) also arrived fully represented by Mr. Henry Townsend who also established two schools in Abeokuta in 1846. The American Baptist Mission and the Roman Catholic Missions (RCM) also arrived between 1853 and 1860 and a number of primary schools were established in towns like Lagos, Ibadan, Ogbomoso, Idda, Calabar, Onitsha, Akassa and Bonny. The main object of this missionary education is summed up by Boyd and King (1968:100) who wrote interalia:

The church undertook the business of education not because it regarded education as good in itself but because it felt it could no longer do its own work properly without giving its adherents, and especially its clergy as much of the formal learning as was required for the study of the sacred writings and for the effective performance of its religious duties.

Thus, in order to produce converts who could read and write, instructions were given in the 4RS - Reading, Writing, Arithmetic and Religion. According to Ayandele (1966:144), education in those days meant Bible Knowledge, Christian ethics, Christian moral instruction, Christian literatures, some arithmetics, languages and craft, all geared in the direction of producing Christians who could read the Bible.

The Christian Mission Schools started winning popularity as a result of the patronage given to them by the colonialists. In addition to this, Nasiru (1977) advances some other reasons for the prosperity of the schools in Yorubaland, namely, payment of monthly salary to the teachers from the parent body of the mission abroad, as against the economically debased mallams who depended on voluntary gifts from the public as means for their survival. Also the free education programme of the Christian missionaries was elaborate than that of the Muslims as they received financial and moral aid from Europe and could afford giving out books, slates, and writing materials freely to the students. In addition to this, appointments into government offices were made from the rank and file of missionary school leavers, as against students of Islamic schools popularly called 'Ole n te laafaa' - lazy men that follow mallam; and on graduation could only perform at Islamic social gatherings like naming, marriage and burial programmes.

The seriousness of the Yoruba Muslims in the pursuance of Muslim Education is demonstrated in their strong stick to the programme not minding the sophisticated manner and cunning approaches used by the missionaries to lure them into accepting and attending Christian schools. Some steps were taken by the Christian evangelists to divert the attention of the Muslims from acquiring Islamic Education and to entice them into accepting Christian system of education. Such steps as elucidated by Gbadamosi (1978) included house to house campaigns, contacting leading and influential Muslims and distribution of Arabic Bible free of charge. Apart from this, people like Rev. M.S.Cole, Rev. James Johnson, Rev. T.A.J. Ogunbiyi and Rev. M.T.Euler Ajayi were said to have become learned in Arabic for them to be well equipped to face the Muslims. Learning of Arabic by these Christian leaders from some Muslim teachers, in our own view manifests the level of literacy of the Muslims not only in their religion but also in English - the language they might have acquired when they were in exile.

The level of the Islamization awareness of the Yoruba Muslims in Iseyin was attested to by Governor Sir G. Carter who in spite of the extensive missionary activities mounted in the town saw only six school children attending their schools as against more than fifty five Quranic schools with 1,246 Muslim children in regular attendance; and in1893, the number increased to 1,400 Muslim children in the six Muslim schools in the area. (Gbadamosi, 1978). James Johnson was highly discouraged at the attitude of the Muslims when he toured the important Yoruba mission stations and schools in 1878. He lamented "the Mohammeddans (sic) shows no desire for the education that may be had at our schools".

Despite the laborious efforts of the Christian Missionaries, the Muslims were lackadaisical and unenthusiastic to their plea at making their children attend their schools. The Muslims could not be blamed for this. The activities of the harbingers of this system of education clearly showed that they had certain hidden agenda. Their statements about Islam, their activities and approaches demonstrated that they intended to use their schools to propagate their faith. A consideration of some of the steps taken by them revealed that Muslims would be undoing themselves should they allow their children to be trained by the missionaries. For instance, the Christians started writing erroneous and hostile texts on Islam. M.S. Cole was reported to have embarked on the translation of the Qur'an and his work did contain a number of erroneous and unIslamic assertions. Also, derogatory statements were said to have been uttered by the missionaries against the Muslims. They were being described as primitive, "obstacle to the progress of civilization and all that is pure, holy and noble." Rev. M.J. Luke was said to have declared Islam as a religion that did not do any good for the country and did not teach the people anything whatsoever (Gbadamosi, 1978). One then wonders how a reasonable Muslim could hand over his child to someone who showed great hatred and enmity to the religion he professed. Little wonder then that the Muslims were adamant and the missionaries' attempts to get them educated in Western schools were like planting a corn in a rock. This is not to say that the Muslim children did not attend the Christian schools at all, however, their number was infinitesimal. Most of the Muslim children who attended such schools did so at the expense of their religion. The few ones who did not change their religion later became useful for the Muslim folk as they constituted themselves to an important Muslim association fighting for the cause of Islam in the zone.

Direct religious teaching shall not form part of the instruction to be given at any Government school, but every minister of Religion, or person appointed by him, shall have free access to any such Government school, for the purpose of giving religious instruction to the children of the religious denomination to which such minister may belong, at such times as may be appointed by the Local Board of Education.

Though the 1882 Education Ordinance paved way for the Muslims to patronize Western schools en-masse, the population of Muslim children in schools did not improve. Hence, in July 1889, a Committee of the Board of Education was set up to find out the problem of low attendance of Muslim children in schools and to offer suggestions and recommendations to the Government on how to check these problems. In its report, the committee recommended that the Governor should have tete-a-tete with the Mallams and Muslim leaders by means of educating them on the value of Western education; that Christian schools should encourage teaching of Arabic in their curricula and that the existing Qur'anic schools should introduce the teaching of the 3RS in English into their curricula. There were attempts to implement these recommendations, but with little success. First, the Missionaries who were using their education enterprises as weapon of evangelisation saw the move of introducing Arabic into their curriculum unrealistic. To the Muslims, the inclusion of Arabic in the Western curriculum was nothing but a caricature, which could not prevent their children from apostasy. In the same vein, it would be an act of adulteration for them to introduce the teaching of the 3RS in the curriculum of their Quranic schools. With the government intervention, the Muslims' attitude to Western education was improving positively and so the the Muslim education system changed drastically by means of teaching Islam in the so - called Western school system. According to Nasiru (1977), the Muslims' attitude by then led to the conversion of the best Qur'anic school at Akanni Street Lagos to the first Government Muslim School by the Lagos Government in 1896, while another Muslim schools co-financed by the Muslims and the government were established in Epe and Badagry in 1898 and 1899 respectively. Individual Muslims also joined in the founding of schools of their own. Among such founders were Mr. Idris Animasaun , Muhammad Augusto, Mr. Abu Ahmad Sadiq, Mr Babatunde Salami and Mr. Tijani.

By the time the Yoruba Muslims were confronting the Christian education with strong opposition, Islamic education was going uninterruptedly in Hausaland as the Christian missions found it extremely difficult to penetrate the North. When eventually they were able to gain access to the North, the Muslims glued themselves to their Islamic system of education and they looked at Western education with contempt. Arabic language was left as the medium of instruction in the few schools established by the colonialists in the province. Joe Umo (1989), noticed that in the 1950s, about 82% of primary schools were located in Southern Nigeria, while only 18% were in Northern Nigeria. Also, 93% of secondary schools were located in Southern Nigeria while 7% were in Northern Nigeria.

The effects of the adoption of the Western system of education by the Muslims were not palatable as such. The Qur'an and Ilmi schools were relegated to the background and prominence was given to English over Arabic as the language of instruction. Lamenting on the impact of colonialism on the Muslim educational systems, Abd al-'Alim ( 1407:171) writes interalia:

. Approximately 200 years of colonization led to a situation such that the Muslims could not even recall what their educational system was. The public was brainwashed that the main light of knowledge and the technological advancement was a gift of colonization.

To confirm the above assertion, Muslims were made to believe that their lateness in accepting Western education was a source of their backwardness and that it was only through Western education that they could prosper in life. Thus, Ahmadu Bello regretted the lateness of the Northerners to embrace Western education while addressing a group of students at the London Constitutional Conference in 1957 saying:

We are now paying the penalty for the relunctance of our forebearers to accept modern education methods. But it has been a good lesson to us and has made us strive to greater efforts to make up for this lost time (Paden, 1986:259).

The attempt to integrate Western education into the Islamic system of education and vice-versa could be considered a positive development in the history of Muslim education in south western Nigeria. However, the development was suspected to have been a step of the colonialists to penetrate into Islamic system of education with a view to diluting it. A pointer to this is the attempt by Government to impose Christian principals on the so-called Islamic schools. This was the case in the Government Muslim School in Lagos. According to Al-Iloriy(1978), this idea led the Muslims to converge together for establishing Islamic Organizations for the purpose of shaping Islamic education in the right channel. Thus, the Ansar-Ud-Deen society was formed in 1923, Zumratul Islamiyyah in 1926, Nawairu Deen Society in 1934, and Ansarul-Islam Society in 1945. The schools established by these organizations were to a very large extent Western in nature but were Islamic only by their names and by having Islamic Religious Knowledge as a teaching subject in their curricula. Thus a period of Westernization of Muslim education set in. The influence of this on the Muslim educational reform is that it helped in producing graduates who are western in outlook, orientation and attitude. The influence of the Christian education which they received in the garb of western education is aptly described by Blyden (quoted by Sulaiman 1979:61) when he writes:

Owing to the physical, mental and social pressure under which the Africans received these influences of Christianity, their development was necessarily partial, and one-sided, cramped and abnormal. All tendencies to independent individuality were repressed and destroyed. Their ideas and aspirations could be expressed only in conformity with the views and tastes of those who help rule over them. All avenues to intellectual improvement were closed against them and they were doomed to perpetual ignorance.

Era of Intermarriage Between Muslim and Western Education:

The acceptance of Western education by the Muslims marked another step in the Muslim educational reform in south western Nigeria. It made the existing Qur'an schools realise their shortcomings and the need for them to borrow ideas from their western counterparts. As such, some proprietors of these schools started fashioning their schools after the western style by introducing school fees, classifying their students, using well prepared syllabi, starting their lessons in the morning, using attendance registers and having students and the teachers furniture in their schools. However, the certificates of such schools are only recognized in some Arab countries for the purpose of gaining admission into their universities; and to gain employment in other local Arabic schools as teachers. Some of these madrasats become prominent that they receive grant from foreign Islamic countries to run them.

The move to make Muslim Schools compete favourably with their western counterparts made some of these schools introduce Islamic Studies and English language into their curricula. Mahd al-Azhari in Ilorin introduced English language as a teaching subject. The Arabic Institute of Nigeria Elekuro Ibadan which was established by Shaykh Murtadha Abdus-Salam also introduced Islamic Studies and English language into the school curriculum and even organised afternoon lesson for interested students to pursue western education up to GCE level.

The Arabic Training Centre (Markaz Ta'limul 'Arabi) Agege of Late Shaykh Adam Abdullah al-Ilori equally modernized the school along Western line though with no western subject introduced. Other schools established along the same line are Al-Adabiyyah school for Arabic and Islamic Studies at Owo, and Alhaji Badru deen's Amin Arabic Training Centre at Iwo established in 1968. It has to be noted that the contributions of some of these erudite scholars to Muslim educational reform had earned them fame and privilege both within and outside the country. Shaykh Muhammad Kamalud-Deen Al-Adabiyy for instance was conferred with M. F. R. title by the Federal Government of Nigeria in 1963. He was also conferred with the Egyptian most prestigious National Merit Award for Art and Science in 1992 in Cairo, Egypt. The able scholar was conferred with honorary doctorate degree by the University of Ilorin recently.

Despite the fact that many Islamic institutes adjusted their curricula, many Quranic schools remain adamant. They consider this as a move to imitate the 'Christian' system of education and teaching English Language as a school subject as a way of promoting 'Christian' Language. Such schools are observed as lacking the most basic educational requirements and low in standard. Begging which was a feature of the students attending such schools in the pre-colonial era still persists, though this has been modified in the south western part of the country especially in Yorubaland where begging is tactfully done by distributing handbill or letter to mosques requesting for alms. However, these Qur'anic schools are credited for their survival despite all odds in the following words of El-Miskin (1997:10):

It is an educational system that has survived in spite of the fact that it has been excluded from educational budgeting for these schools to survive at all without the multi-billion naira budgeting enjoyed by the western oriented schools is not a minor achievement.

The dwindling patronage of Qur'anic schools by Muslims due to their inadequate facilities to meet the challenges of western system of education calls for the establishment of Islamically oriented nursery schools. Except in rear cases, most Quranic schools operate only in the afternoon for children after attending the normal western school system. The financial constraints facing most of the Qur'anic schools due to their 'free education programme' forced many of these schools to fold up or rather transform to Islamic nursery primary schools where fees are charged and parents are ready to pay. Many conscious proprietors of these schools are putting all hands on deck to ensure the Islamicity of their schools. Apart from teaching conventional subject, some Islamic related subjects are equally introduced into their curricula

It should be noted that the National Policy on Education encourages private individuals, organisations and communities to establish private schools. It exclusively leaves the provision of pre-school education to private and volumtary enterprises on the basis that every society has the right to determine what it hopes and wishes its young and innocent citizens to learn. So, as the Christans are using this opportunity for their 'catch them young' evangelisation programme, the Muslim proprietors are trying to present their pupils with a set of knowledge which will be Islamically oriented. Morning assembly is conducted under strict Islamic condition, male pupils separated from female counterparts. Moral talks on Islamic values are given to the pupils while Islamic songs are the only recommended songs in the schools. Zuhr prayer is observed congregationally in some of these schools, while students are encouraged to imbibe simple Islamic etiquettes in and outside the school. To aid this, some Muslim scholars started writing texts on various subjects from Islamic perspective. Among such texts are "Etiquette of Daily Routines for Young Muslims" and "Model Songs of Praise for Pupils of Nursery and Primary Schools" written by M.G. Haroon and M.O. Abdul-Hamid respectively. Others include "Islamic Poem with Allah's Names" and 'Ibaadah Colouring Book" authored by Mallam Abdur-Razaq Zakariya and Mallam Ade Busairy respectively.

The Muslims' awareness that their relevance in this age of industrialisation and scientific and technological advancement depended mostly on their pursuance of western education beyond primary school level, culminated in the establishment of private secondary schools not only to complement the efforts of the government but also to carry out their educational reform. Of such schools are Ad-Din International College Ibadan, Ibikunle Lawal College, Ile-Ife, Al-Huda College Ila-Orangun and many others. The Muslim International School Iwo is jointly established by twelve different jama'ah which for decades had been championing the cautse of Muslim education in Nigeria under the auspices of the committee of Muslim International school (COMIS). Among the leading committeee members are Prof. A. B Fafunwa, Prof. T.A. Balogun, Prof. T.G.O. Gbadamosi, Alhaji Lateef Okunnu, Alhaji R. G. A Oyekan Prof. A.F.B. Mabadeje, Prof. (Mrs.) Saida Mabadeje and a host of others. The aim of COMIS is to establish educational institutions anywhere in Nigeria to be known as Muslim International Schools with the objective of providing qualitative education with strong Islamic emphasis. This is equally one of the objectives of the Nigerian Association of Model Islamic Schools (NAMIS) which is the umbrella body of all private Muslim nursery, primary and secondary schools.

Muslim Educational Reform: Tertiary Institutions Experience

The atavism of Islamic Studies and Arabic Studies in the nation's university education system marks the beginning of a new Islamization process in Nigeria. In addition to the establishment of primary and secondary schools by some Muslim Organizations, the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies was established at University of Ibadan in 1961 with the aim of meeting the growing need and desire of Nigerian students to study Arabic as a language and Islam as a religion. In 1963/64 session, the Department introduced a year programme leading to the award of Certificate in Arabic and Islamic Studies for the purpose of providing admission opportunity into the Department for degree programme. Also, in 1975/76, a Two-year Diploma course was introduced for the award of Diploma in Arabic and Islamic Studies. Certificate obtained from this programme qualified one for direct admission into the Department for Degree programme provided the candidate had five 'O' Level credits including English (JAMB Guidelines 1988-98). In 1976, the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies was established in the University of Ilorin, but it was later changed to Department of Religions when Christian Religious Studies was introduced. Elements of Islamic related courses are also introduced into the Departments of Religions of the University of Ife (now O. A. U), Ondo State University Akungba Akoko and some others.

It behoves one to say that though the inclusion of Islamic related courses into the university programme was a desirable development, the way and manner it was handled had some negative effects on the educational reform of the Muslims. First, this method confines Islamic Studies into studying Islamic rituals and history alone. The departmentalization of Islamic and Arabic studies equally restricts the spread of the tentacle of the programme into other disciplines thereby giving the impression that Islam has no say in other disciplines. The tatty face of this system of educational reform is also realised when considering those handling the courses. First, some courses were handled by non-Muslim Islamists whose main aim as Doi (1984) put it, was to show Islam merely as a heresy of Judaism or Christianity. For instance at University of Ibadan, out of the three lecturers that were appointed to teach Islamic studies, Dr. B. C. Martins and Mr. J. O. Hunwick were Christians, Same was the case at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) where a Jewish lady was employed to teach courses in Islamic Studies.

Apart from this, most of the universities adopt English as the medium of instruction. The Muslims thus rely on secondary sources to tap their needed information while Arabic is relegated to the lowest ebb. The shortcoming of this step is aptly put by Shehu Sokoto (1991:76) who writes:

One of the serious defects of teaching Islamic Studies through English medium and sources is the production of half baked Islamists. It is now rampant to find graduates in Islamic Studies who cannot recite the Qur'an.

The inability of an Islamist not versed in Arabic opens the risk of reliance on texts written by orientalists whose works are hostile to Islam. Such fallacious and contumacious books are capable of polluting the minds of Muslims against Islam.

Affiliation Method: A Means of Muslim Educational Reform

At this juncture, it needs to be said that the Muslim educational reform in the south western Nigeria, especially after the colonial era is more of integrating western and Islamic education together. As such, some Muslim individuals, or organizations take to establishing schools and affiliating such schools to some government recognised institutions. As such some of these colleges are able to run Certificate and Diploma Courses in Arabic and Islamic Studies. This step is taken by these institutions following the failure of the Ministry of Education to give them recognition. An example of this is the defunct Osun Islamic Theological College Osogbo, a College organized by the Zumratul Hujjaj, Osun North East division of the then Oyo State. At the inception of the College, an application letter for the establishment of the college was written to the Ministry of Education. The school was not given formal approval because "the curriculum and syllabus of the College did not belong to any sector of the government's educational programmes" Hence, the College Management applied for affiliation to the University of Ibadan. However, the requirement standard of the university was too cumbersome for the college to fulfill, and so it changed gear and sought same from the Usmanu Dan Fodiyo University, Sokoto. This was granted in September 1991. The curriculum for Diploma candidates of the Osun Islamic Theological College reflects a positive sign of integration of Western system of education with Islamic education (see Appendix A ) students are exposed to thorough Islamic courses which might serve as an effective strategy for Islamization in their future career. The College, though died prematurely, was able to achieve the objective of creating opportunity for the products of Arabic schools to further their studies and it checked the unprogressive attitudes and prejudices some Muslims had for acquisition of western education which they saw as inimical to their religion. Therefore the pairing of western and Islamic education makes acquisition of western education attractive to the Muslims while graduates of this institution are able to relate meaningfully well with their immediate environment.

Other institutions affiliated to University of Ibadan for Diploma in Arabic and Islamic Studies are Sulaiman College of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Ososa, Ijebu Ode; Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Olodo, Ibadan; Mufutau Olanihun College of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Ibadan; and Ansaru-ud-Deen Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Isolo, Lagos. The Kwara State College of Arabic and Islamic Legal Studies, Ilorin which was established by the Kwara State Government is another right step in the Muslim educational reform in the south western Nigeria. However, there is the need to review the programme of studies in the College from Islamic perspective.

The shortcoming of the method of pairing Islamic disciplines with western disciplines could better be explained in the view of the principle of conditioning which was discovered by Ivan Pavlov, a Russian psychologist who lived between 1846 and 1936. In his experiment with a dog, Pavlov discovered what he called classical conditioning - a process in which a neutral stimulus, by pairing with a natural stimulus acquires all the characteristics of natural stimulus. In carrying out his experiment, he put an hungry dog in a cage. He then gave the dog food, to which the dog salivated. He called the food Unconditional Stimulus (UCS) and salivation Unconditional Response (UCR). Next, Pavlov presented a neutral stimulus - (e.g light) an object that will not naturally elicit salivation along with food and the dog salivated. After several trials like this, Pavlov removed the natural stimulus (i.e food ) and presented only neutral stimulus (e.g. light). Surprisingly, the dog started salivating to this. Thus, the light alone was able to elicit salivation because of its repeated pairings with food. From this, one asserts that Islamic Studies naturally elicits response from the Muslims Later western disciplines were paired with Islamic education and thus was accepted by the Muslims. After several trials with this, Islamic related disciplines are gradually been withdrawn from the school systems by a number of factors or principles, yet the Muslims don't realise this and they continue responding to western education gradually forgetting their natural and unconditional stimulus, Islamic Studies.

To drive home this assertion, there are evidences that when Muslims had become fully addicted to western education, they did not only patronise it, but even sponsored and clamoured for it where one had not been established. In Yorubaland, the Ibadan and Ijebu-Ode Muslim communities also requested for the establishment of western oriented schools without any consideration for its consequence on their religion.

It is sad to note that in recent time, Islamic Studies which was introduced into the western school system to elicit positive response is now suffering amongst other school subjects. In his assessment of the teaching of Islamic Studies in secondary schools in Oyo State, Aderinoye (1993), exposed the poor condition of the subject in some schools, ranging from its non-inclusion in the school time table, rejection of Islamic Studies teacher posted to some schools to requesting the Islamic Studies Teachers posted to the school to teach Social Studies or History. Agbetola (1988), equally lamented the status of Islamic Studies' teaching in Ondo State schools despite the moral and financial contributions of the Muslims towards the establishment of such schools. In Osun State , virtually all Islamic Studies teachers had been retrenched by getting their appointment terminated in the government's bid to make the State science oriented. The return of schools to their various owners by the Lagos State Government is another set-back in the history of Islamic learning in the State. The recent proliferation of private universities whereby Christians are taking a lead is another indication that Islamic education in Nigeria will be at a halt especially in these institutions that would be attended mostly by Muslims.

Finally, one needs to express the disappointment of the Muslims who out of the precarious conditions of the Quranic schools and their poor learning environment opted to find solace in western school system. The shortcomings always attached to Quranic schools are raising their ugly faces in the western school system also. The ex-Minister of Education, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu rightly observed that many schools could not boast of desks, dusters, chalk and staff quarters, while overcrowded classrooms and dilapidated structures remained the typical feature of primary school system. The pathetic nature of the current process and practice of schooling in Nigeria is also discovered in the 1992 national survey of basic education conducted by UNICEF and the Federal Government of Nigeria where it was discovered that in primary schools 12% of primary school pupils sit on floor, 87% have over-crowded classrooms, 3% of the schools have no chalkboards, 38% of the classrooms have no ceiling, 77% of the pupils lack text books and 30% of the pupils have no writing materials (Akindiji, 1997).

However, the courage of standing to the task of establishing schools is well saluted, though not yet to the number of expectation. What these schools need is to embrace the current Islamization of knowledge undertaking so that they may succeed in teaching the so-called secular subjects from the Islamic perspective. The proposed Al-Hikmah Universtity is a welcome development in the history of Muslim education reform in the south western zone of the country. It is hoped that when this universtiy finally take off, it will assist in Islamizing the secular disciplines and this will boost the image of Islam and Muslim education in the zone.

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