Pastor Enoch Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God; Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living Faith Church; Rev. Felix Omobude, Pastor W.F. Kumuyi of Deeper Life Church and Bishop Mike Okonkwo of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM); among others, have ordered Christian students in Nigeria to boycott Arabic Studies amid reports that the subject was being imposed on them. The top pastors spoke recently after a meeting in Lagos under the auspices of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN).

“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. Government has no right to force subjects on 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.”

“By stopping Christian Religion Studies, CRS, automatically meant that it would not be embraced at the tertiary institutions. There is a case in Kwara State where a Christian female student was allegedly beaten and forced to take Arabic Studies against her wish. We urged Christian students in any part of the country to refuse to the forced against their wish to read Arabic Studies that bear no relevance to their future development.”

Also present at the meeting were Rev. (Dr.) Mercy Ezekiel, the National Coordinator of Christian Pentecostal Mission (CPM), Pastor Wale Oke and the General Overseer of the Thronegrace Mission, Pastor Emmanuel Nuhu Kure, who is also the National Secretary of the PFN.