Christian Court Bill

• Another threat to secularity and unity

The news that a bill to introduce a Christian Court in the country has passed a second reading is worrisome. The bill introduced by Gyang Dung (PDP-Plateau) seeks to establish Christian courts in the 36 states of the federation “to bring to reality administration of ecclesiastical Christian tenets and law in adjudicating matters of personal Christian law in civil matters.” Like an earlier one introduced by AbdulahiSalame (Gwadabawa/Illela constituency of Sokoto) seeking to extend Sharia to cover criminal law and to apply to the 36 states and the federal capital territory, the bill for Christian law digs at the root of the country’s unity.

It is surprising that sponsors of the bill purportedly seeking to amend Section 37 (I) of the 1999 Constitution appear ignorant of the intent of the constitution’s commitment to the right of every Nigerian to freedom of thought and religion. Like the call for Sharia, the bill for Christian law encourages further division in a country with religious diversity that includes Judaism, Animism, Atheism, and various denominations of Islam and Christianity.

It is the constitutional recognition of rights of freedom of citizens in a country with multiple faiths to practice their beliefs without derogating from the right of others that underscores the secularity of the Nigerian State, which Sharia and Ecclesiastical laws undermine. Any attempt to merge state and faith in a multi-religious and multi-cultural nation-state carries a huge threat to the security, peace, and stability of the country.

Lawmakers have a duty not to ignore threats to peace and stability in the country. Past efforts to introduce faith-based legal systems have created negative impact on inter-ethnic and inter-faith harmony in the country.

Introduction of Sharia in 12 northern states in 2000 led to riots, loss of lives and property. Set against intermittent sectarian problems in the country, terrorism by Boko Haram, a radical Islamist group desiring to transform the country into a caliphate, kidnapping of over 200 school girls, bombing of thousands of citizens, the bill demonstrates gross insensitivity to the challenges facing the country.

For example, it is unimaginative and irrational for lawmakers to compound the country’s sectarian problems by seeking to establish Ecclesiastical Court of Appeal. Lawmakers behind this bill ought to know that the colonial legal system upon which Nigeria was created grew gradually out of the United Kingdom’s ecclesiastical laws, in response to the demands of modernity and democracy.

It should also have been obvious to proponents of Christian law, like those calling for Sharia law, that attempts to undo the aw that brought and sustained various nationalities and faiths in the country thus far have the potential to undermine the country’s unity.

It is, however, salutary that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has indicated its rejection of the bill for a Christian Appellate Court. It is significant that CAN has quickly drawn attention to the failure of lawmakers to do necessary research to find out what Christians really want before canvassing for a Christian judicial system for them. CAN’s statement, “The Christian Courts bill cannot help us; that is why we are voicing it out. This thing is not really what Nigerians want now,” should send a signal to promoters of a bill that has no use to those for whom it is being created that the House of Representatives is engaged in an exercise in futility.

We find it embarrassing that lawmakers still have time to create distractions at a time of growing challenge for the country. The least that is expected from a serious-minded legislature is to create laws to grow the economy, reduce child and maternal mortality, raise quality of education to make the country competitive, fight rising corruption, create modern infrastructure for development and employment for the teeming youth, alleviate grinding poverty across generations.

Members of the House going through another ritual of constitution amendment need not distract citizens with bills capable of causing more division in a society already struggling with overwhelming sectarian crises.

Source: Nation.