Mallam Nasir El-Rufai |
The Religious Regulation Bill promulgated by Governor Nasir El-Rufai is designed to replace the Religious Regulation Edict of 1984, it is geared towards regulating Christianity as it seeks to create an inter-faith Ministerial Committee to be appointed by the governor and exercise control over the religious affairs of the state.
High points of the bill include:
1) The ministerial committee shall issue licenses to religious bodies.
2) Without such licenses, you cannot preach.
3) No external preacher can preach in Kaduna state without a permit.
4) The committee has the power to refuse to issue licenses. (No criteria have been given as to what will qualify one to have a license issued to him or for one to be denied a license.)
5) The law criminalizes the use of religious CDs, flash drive and other communication gadgets except in churches, mosques or other places of worship or personal houses. (The implication is that you cannot listen to Christian tapes in your car or at any place except your house and in a church.)
6) If you preach without a license, you are guilty of an offense punishable by two years imprisonment.
6) If you hold any Christian gathering even in a church and use loud speaker (microphone) after 8.00 p.m, you are guilty of an offense punishable with two years imprisonment.
7) If you listen to a message in your car, you are guilty of an offense punishable by two years imprisonment.
8) If you hold a crusade or any programme or any other kind of programme and use a loudspeaker at the said programme as long as it is not a church, you are guilty of an offense punishable by two years imprisonment.
9) The bill criminalizes the abuse of religious books and makes it punishable by two years imprisonment.(It does not define what ‘abuse of religious books’ mean.)
10) It criminalizes the use of derogatory terms in describing any religion and makes it punishable by two years imprisonment. (It does not define what ‘use of derogatory terms in describing any religion’ means).
11) Every preacher will have to obtain one year license (renewable every year) or risk two years imprisonment.
12) If you invite any external preacher (i.e. preacher from outside Kaduna State), such a person must be licensed for the duration of his/her stay and the body issuing the license has the right to reject the external preacher if it feels he is not qualified to preach in the state.
Governor Nasir El-Rufai has also ordered every church in Kaduna State to remove their signposts or any banner depicting them or the denomination they represent.