The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has described the secondary school curriculum introduced in 2015 by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) as an “obnoxious, divisive and ungodly time bomb”.

The Christian umbrella body said the implementation of the curriculum must be stopped until all the grey areas are addressed.

It warned that “if our call is taken as for granted and nothing is done quickly about this curriculum, we may be tempted to take further action on this curriculum”.

Reacting to the explanation given by the Federal Government over the merger of Christian Religion Study (CRS), Islamic Religion Study (IRS) and Civic Education under Religion and National Values in the curriculum, Samson Ayokunle, President of CAN, issued a statement on Thursday to reiterate that the introduction of the curriculum is an ill-wind that blows nobody any good.

While calling for a workshop where all the stakeholders must be represented to review the curriculum, Ayokunle urged the Federal Government to direct the federal ministry of education to publish the full details of the curriculum on its website to enable everyone know the content.

He argued that both the Federal Ministry of Education and the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) should publish details of the controversial new curriculum of education if they have no hidden agenda.

Speaking on “some perceived discrimination” against Christian students in the curriculum, the CAN president said: “If the new curriculum is treating the two religious subjects separately as being claimed, why do we have a satanic topic in the Civic Education like ‘IS JESUS THE SON OF GOD’? Or is the Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, who disclosed to CAN leadership that this was in the curriculum he earlier saw, lying too?”

He also added that there was nothing wrong with the old curriculum on Christian Religious Studies and Islamic Religious Studies, noting that what people are yearning for is a return to Civic Education and History for obvious reasons as distinct subjects.

“…In this curriculum, Islamic and Christian Religious Studies will no longer be studied in schools as subjects on their own but as themes in a civic education. This undermines the sound moral values that these two subjects had imparted in the past to our children which had made us to religiously and ethnically co-exist without any tension…” he said.

“Islamic Religious Knowledge was equally made available as a subject in another section without any corresponding availability of Christian Religious Knowledge. Is this not a divisive curriculum that can set the nation on fire? Is this fair to millions of Christians in this nation?”

Besides the call for the suspension of the curriculum, CAN also asked that the heads of the parastatals and agencies in the Federal Ministry of Education should be overhauled with a view to balancing the religious dichotomy.

“A situation where 13 of their heads are Muslims while the remaining four are Christians is an ill-wind that would blow no one any good,” he said.