A young Christian lawyer has sparked a nationwide conversation about religious identity, cross-cultural understanding, and the meaning of faith after revealing that she wore the Muslim hijab throughout her one-year programme at the Nigerian Law School in Yola, Adamawa State, not as a shift in religious belief but as an expression of identity shaped by lived experience that ultimately deepened her relationship with God.
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Valentina Okoronkwo, a 24-year-old Ebonyi State native raised as a Catholic, shared her experience in a series of posts and photographs on TikTok on April 6, which garnered over 3,000 likes and triggered widespread conversation across social media platforms, with Muslims and Christians alike engaging with a story that challenges conventional assumptions about religious dress, identity, and the boundaries between faiths, as reported by Sunday PUNCH.
“It was because of the hijab that I found God. If you worship Allah, or call yourself a Buddhist, or whatever religion you choose, God is one, no matter the name you choose to call Him,” Okoronkwo stated.
Okoronkwo’s journey to the hijab began not with a religious conviction but with frustration over poorly sewn uniforms, as she told Sunday PUNCH in an interview.
When she discovered her Law School posting in 2024 was to the Yola campus in Jimeta, Adamawa State, approximately 788 kilometres from Abuja where she had hoped to be posted, her excitement turned to disappointment. The hurried adjustment, including booking a flight within three days, set the tone for a challenging transition.
Settling into Yola, she struggled with language barriers that made communication with local tailors difficult, resulting in poorly fitted outfits that lacked the finishing she expected.
“I shed hot tears. I hated it. I just cried because I didn’t like it at all,” Okoronkwo recalled of her early frustrations.
However, she noticed that the same tailors who struggled with her law school uniforms made abayas, the flowing outer garment worn by many Muslim women, exceptionally well. A practical decision began to form.
“I was frustrated with how tailors sewed my uniforms, but I realised they made abayas very well. So, I thought I could simply wear an abaya instead of my uniform,” she explained.
“As I was about to leave the market, I reasoned that wearing abayas without a hijab wouldn’t make sense. So, I decided to pair it with a hijab. It was a last-minute decision. That was how I began wearing it in Law School,” she told Sunday PUNCH.
The decision, while spontaneous in its execution, had roots in Okoronkwo’s childhood in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.
She recalled that her admiration for the hijab began at around age five, during visits to Ogbe Hausa, a close-knit Hausa community in Abakaliki where some of the city’s best hairdressers, suya makers, and tailors are found.
“When I went to the community, I saw ladies wearing the hijab and asked them to tie it for me. We called it ‘tucking’ at the time,” Okoronkwo recalled.
Her mother, who grew up in Northern Nigeria, speaks Hausa fluently, and had photographs of herself wearing the hijab, provided an additional connection to the practice.
“My mum grew up in the North, and I had seen pictures of her wearing the hijab. She also speaks Hausa fluently. So, I think that was part of the reason she often took me to Ogbe Hausa to make my hair,” she told Sunday PUNCH.
Okoronkwo’s one-year experience wearing the hijab at the Yola campus challenged her preconceptions about Muslim women and the communities they inhabit.
“Admittedly, I mostly saw the scarf or hijab, not the person wearing it, so I naively placed all women who wore the hijab under one stoic group, but I couldn’t be more wrong,” she wrote on TikTok.
“Hijabis are multifaceted, and all have different personalities, interests, and layers to them, perhaps more than non-hijabis,” she observed.
She found that Muslim women, particularly those who wore the hijab, were delighted rather than offended by a Christian woman adopting their practice.
“Muslim women, especially hijabis, loved that I was a non-Muslim covering my hair. I was worried about inadvertently stepping on people’s toes or being offensive, but it was the opposite. They were so happy, asking me about my experience and wishing me well. They 100 per cent passed the vibe check,” Okoronkwo wrote.
On the practical merits of the hijab, she was enthusiastic: “Save for extreme weather conditions, the hijab actually works. Not having to think about what to do with your hair, there are variations and styles to choose from, and I believe it makes you look prettier because it frames your face in a flattering way.”
Okoronkwo’s TikTok post carried a carefully worded acknowledgment of the political dimensions of the hijab debate in Nigeria while asserting its spiritual significance.
“My personal political reservations aside, wearing the hijab is sacred and a form of protection from the divine. People, extremists, abuse it, but it was never meant to be used as a form of oppression, restriction, or control,” she wrote.
She described feeling a sense of divine protection while wearing the hijab, a spiritual experience that transcended the boundaries of her Catholic upbringing.
“Yes, there could be extremists, but many of these teachings that turn people into such are man-made. At the core of it all, Islam is quite similar to Christianity in many ways. I don’t even understand why we argue so much,” she stated.
She added that her mother had told her this when she was young: “Though she wasn’t a very religious person, she believed in God and was very spiritual.”
In her most candid revelation, Okoronkwo disclosed that her Law School experience opened her mind to the possibility of religious conversion.
“It was in Law School that I realised that I could actually convert to Islam, as long as one is not an extremist. At the end of the day, we are all one, and not only is the hijab a divine protection, but God loves women and takes them seriously,” she stated.
She added: “If my brother were to marry a Muslim woman, honestly, I would be happy.”
She said she experienced both kindness and criticism from Muslims during her time wearing the hijab and abaya but chose to focus on the positive.
“I experienced both sides, to be honest. But I chose to focus on the good, and Muslim women have been good to me,” she stated.
Okoronkwo’s appearance did not go unnoticed at the Law School. A lawyer, Mahmud Danjuma, who was her classmate, recalled his confusion.
“I had been asking people in Law School if you are a Muslim or not before I later confronted you during break time, if you could remember,” Danjuma wrote, reflecting the curiosity a Christian woman in hijab generated among her peers.
On TikTok, her post drew similar reactions. A user, Mercy Oluchi, wrote: “I wore hijab as a Christian in Law School,” suggesting Okoronkwo’s experience was not entirely unique.
Another user, Lauren Kay, expressed appreciation: “I am a Christian and have always liked and worn hijabs! It does suit you.”
Okoronkwo’s experience touches on one of the most contentious dress code debates in Nigerian legal education, as Sunday PUNCH reported.
Wearing a hijab in Nigerian Law Schools has historically been contentious, with the formal Call to Bar ceremony traditionally enforcing a strict no-hijab policy. The Nigerian Law School dress code required no hijab, no weave-on, and no jewellery during the ceremony.
In 2017, the issue gained national prominence when law graduate Amasa Firdaus was denied her Call to Bar for wearing a hijab under her wig, triggering a widespread debate on religious freedom and legal ethics that consumed public discourse for weeks.
In 2022, the Supreme Court upheld the right to wear the hijab in public spaces, ruling that restricting it violates constitutional rights to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.
Sunday PUNCH reported that while some campuses, such as Abuja, have shown flexibility, the application of the dress code varies. Checks on the websites of some campuses indicate the emphasis remains on maintaining a “neat appearance” through a strict formal dress code known as “Regulation Wear,” requiring students to wear black-and-white attire to lectures and official functions.
Both Catholic and Muslim clerics provided theological context for Okoronkwo’s experience, as reported by Sunday PUNCH.
A Catholic priest, who preferred to remain anonymous, explained that the Catholic Church “does not have a formal teaching on the Islamic hijab, but views head covering as a matter of tradition, modesty, and personal conscience rather than a requirement.”
He clarified that while Catholic women traditionally wore lace veils, known as mantillas, for reverence during Mass, this is no longer mandatory. “Unlike the mandated hijab in Islam, Catholic veiling is a personal devotion. The Church respects the right to modest dress and individual religious expression, while recognising that the specific form of the hijab is an Islamic tradition,” the priest stated.
He noted that based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Vatican II document Nostra Aetate, “the Catholic Church holds high regard for Muslims, acknowledging shared elements of faith, such as the worship of the one, merciful Creator God, the honouring of Jesus as a prophet, and honouring Mary.”
A Muslim cleric, Ismaila Bello, explained that the hijab is a divine command for Muslim women as stated in the Quran. “Women are commanded to cover their hair and bodies and uphold modesty. The hijab protects women from the unwanted gaze of men and helps them uphold their chastity,” Bello stated.
He added: “Women have been made to believe that they are not beautiful enough unless they expose their bodies to everyone. This is the work of the devil. That is why the hijab is a form of divine protection. It protects women from false beauty standards and keeps them from the corrupting influence of being used as a tool of seduction.”
An Instagram user’s historical perspective added another layer to the conversation. Only1 Akana noted that early Christians, including Mary the mother of Jesus, wore veils, and that “Christianity came before Islam. The purpose of using a veil is to protect your hair because they lived in desert areas then. Now, Islam came and also used the veil and rebranded it into the hijab.”
Another user, Blossom Nakanda, observed: “This is veiling. Most Christians use veils like the reverend sisters. Most times, it’s a personal decision, and it’s not only for Muslims.”
Okoronkwo, who was among the successful candidates called to the Bar in July 2025, now studies for her Master’s degree in the United Kingdom. She said she no longer wears the hijab as she did during Law School but would wear it again if she had to repeat the experience.
Her story, born from frustration with tailoring in Yola and rooted in childhood memories from Abakaliki, has become one of the most discussed personal narratives in Nigerian legal and religious discourse, demonstrating that sometimes the most profound spiritual journeys begin with the most mundane practical decisions.
As she wrote on TikTok: “God is one, no matter the name you choose to call Him.”
This report is based on an original investigation by Sunday PUNCH, written by Victor Ayeni.
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