El- Rufai signs bill regulating preaching into law

KADUNA, Nigeria – The governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir  el-Rufai on Friday signed the bill regulating  preaching activities in the state.

Mallam el-Rufai gave his assent to the bill almost two years after the Kaduna State House of Assembly  passed the Religious Preaching Regulation bill and forwarded it to the governor for his accent.

 The lawmakers passed the bill in 2019 but it was received with a lot of criticism. The bill gave birth to the Interfaith Regulatory Council which was also inaugurated by the governor on Friday.  The Interfaith Regulatory Council which was passed by the Kaduna State House of Assembly has committees at the state and local government levels responsible for screening and issuing licence to preachers.

“The council will have two representatives each of Christian and Islamic bodies among other members. The Council also has power to issue regulations considered necessary to guide the local government interfaith committees in the performance of their functions as provided under the bill, if signed into law.

“The bill stipulates that in each of the 23 local Government areas of the state, a committee to be known as the Local Government Interfaith Committee has to be established.

“The Local Government Interfaith Committee shall consider and recommend to state Interfaith Regulation Council all applications for the grant of licence to religious preachers as well as screen and recommend preachers for the grant of license among other functions.

“The supplementary provision provides that all cassettes, CDs, flash drives or any other communication gadgets containing religious recordings from accredited preachers may be played inside a private dwelling unit or vehicle, entrance porch (zaure), church, mosque and any other designated place of worship.

“It further stated that any person who plays religious cassette or uses a loud speaker for religious purposes between the hours of 11pm to 4am in a public place, and uses a loudspeaker for religious purposes other than inside church or mosque commits an offence and shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment for a term of not less than two years or pay a fine of not less than N200,000 or both.”

While inaugurating the Interfaith Regulatory Preaching Council, el-Rufai said the council was set up to ensure that preachers of faith in the state do not set residents up against one another.

He said the council is made up of senior religious leaders from the Christian and Islamic faiths, traditional rulers and public office holders, adding that the council will also ensure that religion in Kaduna state is not practiced in ways that deliberately inconvenience others.

He said his administration is determined to stamp out what he describes as the ‘poison from the negative practices of religion’ in the state.

The state government had in 2016 argued that the bill was meant to regulate religious preaching in order to promote religious harmony and peaceful coexistence not to stipple religious freedom, which the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guarantees every citizen.