The controversial ‘Religious Preaching Law’ introduced by the Kaduna State government to succeed the “Kaduna State Religious Preaching Law 1984,” has thrown the state into disarray, more contentious than the issues the Bill aims to address.
Beyond the horizons of the state, umbrella organizations of the major religious bodies in Nigeria, Christianity and Islam, have proportionally expressed adverse position to the proposed law.
At the same time when the Bill was been described as repletion of greys, it was also maintained that it stands on contravening heels with the religious practice of the people.
In the face of these staunch objections, however, the Kaduna State branch of the Jama’atu Nasril Islam, JNI, has revealed that its body has been engaged in the regulation of public preaching by Muslim scholars for over 50 years.
Speaking to Daily Trust on Sunday in Kaduna, Ja’faru said the proposed Bill was not new to the body, explaining that the JNI had been regulating public preaching by its Muslim scholars for over five decades.
“We at the JNI have been regulating public preaching since the era of the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello. When Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi was the governor of Kaduna State, he wanted to propose a Bill on preaching and we told him that we already had a bill restricting preaching,” he said.
The chairman said when the Kaduna State Pilgrims Board was established, the leadership also wanted to put a law in place for public preaching, but the JNI reminded them that there was a law which had been taken to the State House of Assembly but was not passed into law ‘because the Christians opposed it.’
“Now that the present government is trying to regulate public preaching, our position still stands the same; we are solidly behind the regulation of public preaching, because as Muslims, we are taught to follow rules and regulations, a Muslim preacher should not go out in the public and start abusing the citizenry all in the name of preaching,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Christian Association of Nigerian, CAN, had protested against the Bill. In stentorian voice, the body had gone ahead to make publications in national dailies, saying they will not regulate preaching and the government should let them be.
