Clerics to obtain licence before preaching as Kaduna Assembly finally passes controversial Preaching Regulation bill

Kaduna state House of Assembly on Friday passed into law a bill that will henceforth regulate religious preaching in the state.

The bill which is named Religious Preaching Regulation law, was passed three years after it faced a serious criticism from different religious bodies and individuals.

The bill, whose goal is to promote religious harmony and peaceful co-existence amongst the residents of the state, was brought to the House in 2016.

At the plenary, Speaker, Alhaji Aminu Abdullahi Shagali, while reading the bill, said a state inter-faith regulatory council has been established with a chairman to be appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of the secretary to the state government.

It was also gathered that two members representing the Christian and Muslim faiths will be appointed by the Governor, among others.

According to the Speaker, the bill further states that the above mentioned council shall hear and determine appeals brought before it arising from the decision of the local government inter-faith committee and also has power to issue regulations considered necessary to guide the state inter-faith council and local government inter-faith committee in the performance of their functions.

He further mentioned that the bill stipulates that in each of the 23 local government areas of the state, a committee to be known as the Local Government Inter-faith Committee has to be established.

According to him, the local government inter-faith committee shall consider and recommend to the state Inter-faith Regulatory 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.

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The supplementary provision explained that all cassettes, compact disks (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 less than N200,000.00 or both.

The bill added that any person who publicly insults or incites any religion by making false statements in such a manner as to be likely to lead to a breach of peace, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term of not less than five years or a fine of not less than N100,000.00 or both.

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