It’s of no use building a safe haven for citizens whose fundamental human rights you deny. A government that protects the lives and property of a people emasculated of their right to religious freedom is far from being progressive or egalitarian.
In view of the widespread controversy – mixed reactions, legal debates, bitter criticisms and apparent divisions – that has trailed the RAR bill, Governor El-Rufai and his advisors are implored to deploy objective reasoning in further pursuance of their goal. I presume that their objective as public officers is to serve the interests of the electorate and honour the trust vested in them. Hence, any intended reform within the various spectrums of society must be developed and evaluated against this backdrop. It’s of no use building a safe haven for citizens whose fundamental human rights you deny. A government that protects the lives and property of a people emasculated of their right to religious freedom is far from being progressive or egalitarian.
One of the implications of passing the bill into Law is the inescapable conflict it will generate particularly in the Christian community, which is made up of many distinct denominations. As I have highlighted before, the Christian Association of Nigeria doesn’t exercise overriding authority over all these groups, and the Law doesn’t require any of them to be aligned or affiliated to CAN. If the bill is suggesting that CAN be made the regulatory body for all Christian groups, it’s invariably instructing that all hitherto independent denominations or ministries submit their autonomy compulsorily to CAN. This is certainly unappealing to logic. The agitations raised so far by critics of the bill, in light of its various shortcomings, are understandable.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
The El-Rufai administration need not pit itself against so many people. According to the state’s Chairman of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Professor Femi Ehinmidu, “The Kaduna State government cannot claim to be wiser than the whole lot of eminent Nigerians who gave the nation the constitution.”
A way forward, therefore, is to harmonise the laudability of reformism with the loftiness of civil right, on the bedrock of the rule of law, through transformational leadership. Instead of adopting a rigid stance, he should rally the cooperation of leaders and stakeholders from every relevant quarter. His Excellency should lay down his ego, retrace his steps, and admit that he erred by neglecting to consult leaders in the two major religious groups before dispatching the bill to the KDHA. There’s thin line between such self-assertion and sheer insolence.
The bill should hence be recalled. If a document that will regulate religious activities in Kaduna State must be developed, a conference of stakeholders, where all denominations in the state are duly and equally represented, must be assembled for that purpose.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });