Before we are thrown out of Nigeria: the tragedy of Government College Keffi

I was in Government College Keffi last Sunday to take the pictures of the College for a story the new magazine Nigeria Calabash.com (www.nigeriacalabash.com). What I saw in the College was not really very different from what I had seen in other schools. For those who care to know the school system has almost collapsed in Nigeria and its no use saying that we need to repair the schools.
I have so much believed in Keffi and its products that I have committed myself to the repair of the school, planning to donate books and computers. In the last four years I have borne the entire cost of registering the keffi old boys domain name, designing the website and hosting the site online. Every opportunity that I have in the last few years I have spoken about the school and the work that had been done there. Indeed my only tenuous connect to Yaradua, hence my sympathy for him, is the keffi connection, where we had religious tolerance. Christian prefects helped Muslim students to wake up and pray or prepare for their fasting.

While I was a student there was no Christian chapel. The Muslims had a mosque. Christian students used any of the science theatres, class rooms and the Assembly hall called Patient Hall for their activities. Sunday services, Easter activities, evening prayer meetings, Christmas carols and even conferences held in Patient hall. Now Keffi has changed, and taken a turn for the worse.
Now there are three mosques in Keffi and no chapel. Suddenly the fellowship of Christian Students, (FCS) to which belonged while schooling in Keffi, no longer has a place for worship. Besides, their three mosques, Muslim students have commandeered the Patient Hall, with the apparent support of the authorities. On Sunday mornings, Muslims students congregate in the Patient Hall for activities at the same time that service is supposed to be held. Christian students were asked to use the dining hall. Some students I spoke with told me that whenever the school has need for the dining hall they do not have a place of worship.
How did this start? In 2006 or therabout, a teacher punished a Muslim student for committing an offence. A normal situation in Keffi, where people are subjected to all types of disciple, which we now think did us a lot of good. However, Muslims students thought otherwise. They burnt down school buildings, burnt down the house of the teacher and of course, burnt down the FCS office and all its files and bibles. It is instructive that none of the three mosques in the College were burnt down. What as the reaction of the Government of Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu? The teacher, I am told was demoted and transferred out the school and demoted. What will the Muslims students? They area a law unto themselves and can do as they please.