An Interesting Read: Dear El-Rufai, Licence Me To Preach

Below is an interesting review of the Kaduna Religious Preaching Bill by Barr. Ofekeze Darlynton Okiemute. Happy reading:
"Driving around the streets of Nigeria, one is confronted with ridiculous posters like “ Uncle, wetin I do you”, “My Woman, My Everything”, “Operation Point and Kill”, “Give me a Spouse or I Die”, “Oh God Na Like this We Go Dey?”, “I will not leave Lagos empty handed”, “Leave me let me drive my car” etc. The list is indeed endless. I remember seeing a post “Don’t Die
2013 a poor Pastor call xxxxx”
Admittedly, the liberalism in the practice of religion in Nigeria has been abused. I speak for Christianity as that is my faith. There are lots of sham pastors everywhere teaching heresies and taking advantage of vulnerable people and in some cases preaching hate. When I had to do public transport and some mobile evangelist as they call themselves starts their business, I often get irritated as over 90% of the lot are hustlers. I remember an experience in Lagos where the “preacher” started off with tales of the most horrific accidents to scare people and then ended up taking an offering to support his pastoral school. The scam strategy was simple; incite fear in them to make them sober enough to give an offering. Christianity teaches faith and not fear!!!, I almost screamed at the man but I held my cool.
So I do share the view that religious practice should be regulated, if possible and practicable because of the massive influence it has on its adherents.
However, a critical look at the Kaduna State Religious Preaching Bill confirms my apprehension that an attempt to regulate religion in this manner, especially in a society like ours, will only breed more hate, division and will be a recipe for civil disturbance.
Firstly, the Bill, to my mind, is not a product of sound legal collaboration but rather a product of an “Oversabi” individual who is bereft of the basics of legal drafting. The bill fails to set-out its fundamentals and creates ambiguity leaving so much to the discretion of individuals.
The purport of the Bill is to regulate religious preaching by the two major religions in the State, which is inferred to be Christianity and Islam, though the bill fails to specifically set out the definition of the two major religions. The Bill seeks to achieve its regulation of religious preaching by making it an offence to preach without a licence.
The Bill sets up an Inter-Faith Ministerial Committee (Ministerial Committee) with the responsibility to approve the issuance of licences to preachers. However, this Licence will be issued by either the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) or Jamaátu Nasir Islam (JNI).
The Ministerial Committee will be made up of 9 members. The Chairman is to be appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of the Secretary to the State Government without any screening or input by the House of Assembly. The other members will be the special adviser to the Governor on internal security, the most senior official of the Government advising the Governor on inter-faith matters, a member representing JNI and CAN, representative of the Ministry of Justice and one Representative each from the Nigeria Police, the Department of State Security and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corp not below the rank of Superintendent of Police or its equivalent.
From the Bill, it is only one member that must be from another religion. The composition of the Bill allows so much room for uneven religion representation in the Committee which creates room for real and imagined apprehension and bias.
The Licence is meant to last for one year. Every invited preacher ought to obtain a permit for the period of the event.
The Bill also sets up a Committee in each Local Government to screen applications for licences and makes recommendation to the Ministerial Committee for approval.
From the Bill, CAN or JNI only issues Licences approved by the Ministerial Committee.
These provisions create so much ambiguity and absurdity. This provisions leaves a lot of void, for instance, Can either CAN or JNI refuse to issue a licence even after approval by the Ministerial Committee?
Most importantly, the Bill is silent on the conditions for grant or refusal of an application for a licence. It does not set out the criteria for the grant or refusal of the Licence. The grant or refusal of the Licence should not be left to the whims and caprices of the Ministerial Committee appointed based on the whims and caprices of an individual. To do so, will be absurd.
The Bill should set out specific, verifiable and ascertainable criteria for the grant of the Licence. This would remove the grant or refusal of licence from the discretion of the Ministerial Committee so an applicant can seek proper redress where he/she is refused a Licence. The Bill also does not provide a remedial procedure where one is refused a licence. Moreso, the operations of both the Local Government Committee and the Ministerial Committee should be properly set out. The procedure for grant or refusal whether by voting by its members or Veto by the Chairman should be specifically spelt out.
The Bill also does not set timelines for the grant of the licence which ought to last for one year. The implication is that the committee and CAN/JNI can take 3years in processing a licence that will expire in 1year. There is also no provision for the modalities of renewal of Licences.
The Bill also prohibits the playing of cassettes, Cds or flash drive containing religious recordings from accredited preachers in places other than one's house, entrance porch ( Zaure), Church, Mosque or other designated place of worship. Ordinarily, this provision seems fair enough but the implication of this is that churches like Deeper Life, Christ Embassy, Living Faith Church and R.C.C.G can no longer broadcast live programmes from their headquarters even in their churches in Kaduna State except Daddy G.O, Pastor Kumuyi, Pastor Chris and Bishop Oyedepo are licenced to preach by El- Rufia. So if T.D Jakes or some other foreign ministers are invited to preach in Canaan Land or Redeem Camp during their yearly Shiloh or Holy Ghost Night, such preaching cannot be broadcasted in their Kaduna churches except those preachers are Licenced to preach by El-Rufai.


The Bill also prohibits the playing of cassettes or use of a loud speaker for religious purpose in a public place after 8pm. The Bill also prohibits the use of Loud Speaker for religious purpose in places other than Churches or Mosques. The Bill defines Public place to mean public resorts and includes markets, public institutions or centre and other facilities accessible to the public. These provisions therefore prohibit any religious program which will require the use of loudspeakers outside the Church or Mosque. The Bill also prohibits the use of loudspeakers for religious purpose after 8pm. This seems fair enough but means no more open air crusade and church programs of any sort and no more Church programs after 8pm as it is almost practically impossible to organise a church program without the use of speakers.


Note to El-Rufai
The major problem of this Bill is the issue of criteria for the grant or refusal of the licence. It is practically impossible to set acceptable criteria for issuance of Licence to Christian Preachers. What would be the criteria, is it a certificate from a seminary or pastoral school? If yes, of which denomination? How about university student pastors or school fellowship presidents from Scripture union in secondary schools or chapel prefects in Christian schools? How do you Licence them? How do you Licence bible study/Sunday school facilitators?
It might interest you to know that some of the most prolific preachers in the Christian faith today never attended any seminary school or pastoral school at the start of ministry. The efficacy of a Christian preacher is divinely ascertained and cannot be measured by any human scale.

Biblically, Jesus Christ preached at the age of 12 in the synagogue and made impact. Dear El-Rufai, would you grant a 12 year old a Licence to preach?
Dear El-Rufai, Christianity or Islam is not the reason for the bad roads in Kaduna State or the poor standard of education or the lack of quality and affordable housing or the lack of basic social amenities and infrastructure in Kaduna State. Except controversy gives you orgasm, focus on delivering the dividends of good governance to the people of Kaduna State rather than creating more division, hate and tension among the people of Kaduna State as you are no longer an accidental public servant".