Government schools are in quintessence non-religious and no sect or religious group is expected to project its faith at the expense of others. Like other government schools in this country the Bo School has experienced a non-religious atmosphere since its founding in 1906. Recent events however have given cause for some concern. The construction of a mosque on the school compound in this institution that was founded on Christian principles while there is no Church building there is rather odd.
It’s no excuse saying that Muslims in the school are now in the majority. This is a reflection of the fact that Muslims are in the majority in the country although figures do not count in religion like politics. It is the faithful few in any religion that believes in God that counts.
Everyone is a believer in God, a god or something. Man is by constitution a religious animal. What has been happening at the Bo School is the need for Muslims to harmonize their beliefs into practice. The zealous ones among them believe that their attendance at the many mosques in Bo City is not enough for them to enter heaven. Therefore they prevailed on the others or got some philanthropists to build them a mosque. They are as zealous as the Pharisees of old. And talking about freedom to pray, permission is always granted to Christians and Muslims to pray at their holy places within Bo city on Sundays and Fridays. There is likely to be some consternation about what would happen to the Muslim zealots at the world of work where there would be no mosques outside their offices to carry out their five daily prayers at the expense of the hours of work to be put in.
If we submit everything to reason our religion will have nothing mysterious or supernatural in it. Religion is like fashion. We all dress according to our whims and caprices as long as it is decent and acceptable by society. And religion is the basis of civil society. God does not require any uniformity of religion to be enacted and enforced in any state.
On the occasion of the Golden Jubilee celebration of Old Bo Boys Association (OBBA) it was the late President Siaka Stevens who said: “Bo School has been a trail blazer in the annals of Sierra Leone’s educational progress in more ways than one. While serving as a centre force for various ethnic groups at a formative level, the School at the same time provided a halo from which surrounding people benefitted immensely.
Much to the pleasure of succeeding generations of administrators, the school has been exerting a wholesome influence disproportionate to its aims at its foundation. Indeed the history of the provinces might have been different without the leadership of products of the school in Chieftaincy and other fields of endeavour.
The enviable reputation and distinguished roles of your products in nation building should be maintained if the school is to continue to count in the nation’s esteem. In the new national system your role should be even easier. I congratulate members of OBBA on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee celebrations.
Without Christian administrators who founded the School there would have been no Bo School and no enlightened Paramount Chiefs who added speed to our development. OBBA should not have permitted the building of a mosque in the school grounds in the first place. Christians should not build any church on those grounds in competition. Let Christian magnanimity prevail. It’s no luke-warmness.