LEGISLATURE: Contentious Religious Preaching Bill In Kaduna: Committee Dissolved As New One is Constituted.

With the controversy generated by the contentious “Religious Preaching Bill” sent to the Kaduna State House of Assembly by the state government few months after its inauguration in 2015, the legislature has been accused of being slow in reading the Bill.

However, the committee which was earlier saddled with the task of addressing the contentious “Religious Preaching Bill” has been dissolved by the House yesterday during its plenary sitting.

With the dissolution, another one was immediately constituted and its members inaugurated.  

The “Bill on Religious Preaching”, it could be recalled, was submitted  by the Mallam Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai administration to substitute the “1984 Religion Decree on Preaching” and it had been in the Assembly for about two years where it was first referred to the Joint Committee on Hajj and Islamic Affairs and Christian Matters and Pilgrimage Affairs before it was referred to the now dissolved Adhoc Committee.

The dissolution of the Committee, according to available information, was with regards to its perceived slowness and a lack of capability to the reading of the bill. Though the Chairman of the Adhoc Committee Aliyu Abdullahi Yakawada (Giwa West) requested for more time, it was denied by the Speaker.

Chairman House Committee on Information, Honourable Nuhu Goro while addressing the media shortly after the sitting, disclosed that one of the reasons the committee was dissolved was chiefly due to its inability to ‎handle the aspect of the “public hearing” which is the basic aspect of the bill where the Committee will get inputs to be included in their reports.

“The newly constituted Committee under the leadership of Abdullahi Maikano as chairman who is an old timer in the Assembly, will ginger the ‎necessary stakeholders to come to terms and look into the Law and begin to work on it and within the three weeks expected, to report back to the House will be met”, Nuhu Goro stated.

Speaking further, the House Committee Chairman on Information disclosed that, one of the issues that impeded the Joint Committee to meeting up since the assignment that it was given to work on last year, “was when the Chairman went on pilgrimage to Makka in September, 2016 and this affected the work entirely”.

“Secondly, the general public was not helping matters as they went on talking about the law which they have neither seen nor handle”. 

“The Ad-hoc Committee took over then as they returned from Pilgrimage but along the line started getting some feelers and unfortunately for them the feelers were not coming as at the time the committee was filing its report for presentation and the committee did not feel it is right to just make a blank report without substantiating what they have gathered as the key issue that will make this Law the people’s Law, is when there is a Public Hearing where everyone comes it to contribute”.

“I believe the public is aware of the importance of living in peace ‎and harmony and I am sure they are concerned about “hate speeches” and maintaining decorum so I believe if we are to invite them now, we will get through and this new Committee will not fail the Honourable House”.

“The Law is open and there is nothing hidden about it. It is meant for the people and it will be governed by the people as they must contribute to making a Law and once you contribute to what you will be guided with, then, I believe there is no cause for alarm‎ as most of the Members have been able to go back to their various constituencies to talk with their people. All we need do is wait, for the Committee to come up with their report then, we will continue from there”.