The House of Representatives on Thursday called on Federal and Subnational Governments to ensure outright ban of all educational materials relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) across the country.
The resolution was passed sequel to the adoption of a motion titled: ‘Ban on inappropriate educational materials in nursery and pre-primary schools in Nigeria,’ sponsored by Hon. Sulaiman Abubakar Gumi.
In his lead debate, Hon. Gumi observed that Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) is saddled with the “statutory responsibility to undertake and promote book development and local authorship for quality assurance at the National level, while the Curriculum Service Departments undertake the same at the State Level, whereas the Education Research Council (ERC) does same in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
“The House is concerned about the influx of foreign educational materials introduced in Nursery and Primary schools in Nigeria which tend to teach and promote certain morals that are alien and inimical to our cherished norms and values.
“The House is also concerned that the widely used book, ‘Queen Primer’ subtly introduces terms ‘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 House is cognizant of the 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, especially in the Nursery and Primary schools.”
In his remarks, Hon. Sada Soli, who praised the spirit and timeliness of the motion as it seeks to cure the confusion and distress these strange knowledge inflicts on children, further reiterated that Nigeria has laws prohibiting these inappropriate contents in the society, especially as Nigerian religions frown at them.
On his part, Hon. Olumide Osoba, who argued that the use of these gay nomenclature is against Nigerian cultural values, frowned at Western countries bullying African nations to accommodate such and called on the House to stand firm against it.
Also speaking, Hon. Anthony who called for full censorship and monitoring of such content so that they do not filter into the society as it has the potential to destroy the society, harped on the need to extend the censorship to secondary schools, as well as tertiary institutions.
While venting his view, Hon. Ibrahim Aliyu bemoaned the moral decadence in the Nigerian society due to vices such as banditry, fraud, cattle rustling, kidnapping and now gay and LGBT issues want to creep in. He also called for strict monitoring of what children are accessible to through publications, as well as the internet.
In his contribution, Hon. Mohammed el-Rufai narrated how he moved his daughter out of a school when he found out that some values he believed in were being neglected.
He also stated that many television stations shows these days stylishly sneak in these alien values in their programmes to contaminate the minds of unsuspecting individuals.
Worried by the development, Hon. Kabiru Maipalace who called on Nigerians to be very vigilant about what their children are being taught, urged State Governors to also continue to monitor and if necessary, shut down schools who err in this regard.
He observed that parents spend more time with their children than the children spend in schools with their teachers and should not fail in their duties to duly monitor literature, programmes and contents children take in as all contents are supposed to be age-rated.
Also speaking, Hon. Isiaka Ibrahim who bemoaned the high rise in moral decadence that should be tackled by all MDAs and Arms of government, called on UBEC and the state versions through the Ministry of education to ensure compliance with the due diligence.
While calling for the protection of the vulnerable pupils in schools, Hon. Awaji Abiante wondered why textbooks which should be vetted and discarded get into the school system.
He therefore called for the strict application of the relevant Laws on same sex marriage or courtship in the Nigerian society.
In his address, Hon. Adebayo Adepoju praised the spirit of the motion and stressed the need to enforce the relevant Laws on this issue as Nigeria is a sovereign nation that does not have to succumb to undue external pressure.
Also speaking, Hon. Garba Inuwa who stressed the need to enforce standard curriculum for teaching Nigerian pupils, called for screening of social media content that comes into the country.
Hon. Abubakar Fulata who urged State and Federal Governments to act on it as education falls into the Concurrent List, kicked against all forms of “pervasive culture” being introduced into Nigeria.
On her part, Hon. Toyin underscored the need to make it a criminal offence to make use of these pervasive material after they are banned.
After robust debate on the motion, Deputy Speaker, Hon. Benjamin Kalu referred it to the House committee on Basic Education for further legislative action.
In the bid to ensure effective censorship of the educational materials, the House mandated 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 immoral behaviour.
