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Tag: el-Rufai

  • El-Rufai’s religious preaching bill

    Much as Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State tries to explain the rationale behind the bill to check the activities of preachers, it would appear the controversy generated by it will continue to linger for a longtime to come. For, there are grey areas in that executive bill that raise suspicion on the capacity of its implementers when passed into law, to be fair to all the religions.

    Titled “A bill for a law to substitute the Kaduna state Religious Preaching law 1984”, it seeks among others, the establishment of two committees, one from the Jama’atu Nasir Islam (JNI) for Moslems and the other from the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) for Christians. It also proposes the setting up of an inter-faith ministerial committee to exercise supervisory control over the JNI and CAN committee.

    Both the JNI and CAN committees are to issue licences to preachers as approved by the inter-faith ministerial committee and renewable after one year. Other key aspects of the bill relate to restricting the playing of cassettes, CDs, flash drive or any other communication gadgets containing religious recordings from accredited preachers to one’s house, inside the church, Mosque, or any other designated place of worship.

    It also makes it an offence for any person to preach without licence, play a religious cassette or use a louder speaker for religious purposes after 8pm in public places. An offender shall on conviction be liable to a term of imprisonment not exceeding two years or a fine of N200, 000 or both.

    The Catholic Bishop of Kaduna, Most Rev. Dr. Matthew Man-OSO Ndagoso, is of the opinion that the bill is unnecessary as our laws can handle issues it seeks to tackle.

    For the chairman of the JNI in the state, Alhaji Ja’faru Makafi, the bill is nothing new as preaching activities have had a long history of regulation in the state. He said it was for this reason that the regime of Ahmed Makafi had to drop similar idea when he was reminded that there were existing laws regulating preaching.

    Thus, the bill appears an avoidable duplication of existing laws guiding the practice of religion and therefore patently unnecessary. Apart from this, there are aspects of it that are largely vague and suspicions are that in their implementation, the Kaduna State government may likely come out in its true colours.

    The first has to do with the setting up of the two committees for JNI and CAN that are to be supervised by an inter-faith ministerial committee. The bill should have gone further to specify the composition of the inter-faith committee. This is especially so because given the very sensitive nature of religion on these shores, there is every reason to expect some friction when it comes to the composition and chairmanship of the committee. The direction it tilts will be a mirror to what may follow thereafter.

    There will be friction over the propriety of the inter-faith committee to determine which preachers to issue licences and which of them should not be accredited to propagate their faith. Such issues are very hard to regulate. Moreover, the criteria for the issuance of such licences have not been spelt out. Is it going to be based on large followership, popularity, record or rigorous religious training?  Or is it going to be biased in favour of well established faith organizations? What future is there for the budding ones?

    And where is it written that these criteria are all there is for purposeful and effective evangelical work?  It would seem the inter-faith committee is ab initio handicapped in the assignment the bill seeks to carve out for it. It will also amount to serious intrusion into the activities of the two religions by the government. There must be a point beyond which the government cannot intrude in religious affairs. Setting up an inter-faith committee to regulate what Christians and Moslems do would amount to an action taken too far.

    There are also serious issues with the proposed trial of preachers without licences in the sharia and customary courts. The controversy that will arise from this may make nonsense of anything to be achieved by that piece of legislation.

    If at all, preaching should be regulated in the manner being proposed in the bill, it ought to be left for the two religious bodies.  But it is not all religious sects that belong to CAN and JNI. And that further constrains the attempt to regulate. You can neither regulate nor issue licences to faith based organizations that fall outside the ambit of these two religious bodies.

    But then, there is the more fundamental flaw in the reasoning that the cause of religion is better served when preachers are armed with a licence from the government. Its corollary is that issuing licences to preachers constitutes both the necessary and sufficient conditions for peaceful co-existence among members of the two dominant religious groups. There are no facts to support this thinking.

    Moreover, some of the preachers who command large following today and have performed well in their missionary work are neither known to have undergone formal training in their missionary work nor certified by such bodies as JNI or CAN before they commenced preaching. So the contention by El -Rufai that the bill “seeks to ensure that those that preach religion are qualified, trained and certified by their peers to do so” cannot be stretched too far.

    In fact, if such regulation had been in force, many of the religious denominations that abound today would not have been allowed to spring up. That is the simple fact and that is why the feeling is strong that the bill is meant to limit religious freedom.

    There are also issues with limiting the playing of cassettes, CDs and flash drive to one’s homes and inside the churches and mosques. The inevitable impression is that much of the religious disharmonies we have had in that state derive in the main, from unrestrained spreading of religious messages through these medium. This cannot be supported by the genesis of the various religion-induced riots that had in the past, led to the destruction of lives and property of inestimable value not only in that state but other states in the north. It cannot also be achieved by making it an offence for any person to preach without licence or limiting the use of loud speakers for religious purposes in public places after 8pm.

    Such regulation will no doubt, come into conflict with the mode of evangelization of most Christian dominations. The issue is not as much with the playing of religious cassettes or spreading religious messages after a certain period of time. It has not got much to do with what preachers do during their public outings.

    We need to look beyond these if we really seek the right handle to the cycle of religious violence that has been the sad lot of some states in the north. The Maitatsine riots of the 80’s; the series of religious violence of the past and the Boko Haram insurgency have little to do with some of the issues the bill seeks to regulate. Neither is the bill designed to check the future emergence of weird fundamentalist ideology nor the selfish manipulation of the down-trodden by the elite that give rise to such riots. Such indoctrination is implanted within the four walls of these religious bodies rather than outside of it.

    El-Rufai should drop that superfluous piece of legislation and channel his energy to improving the material conditions of the people of that state. With improved education and material conditions of living, the ease with which politicians manipulate the masses for self-serving ends in the guise of religion, will wane very considerably. And that is the real issue.

  • We’ve not banned evangelism, says El-Rufai

    We’ve not banned evangelism, says El-Rufai

    •’We seek to curb extremism’
    •CAN, JNI, others meet on way forward

    Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai yesterday told stakeholders that the Preaching Bill he sent to the House of Assembly was not to ban evangelism.

    He said it was meant to curb religious extremism.

    Speaking at a religious bill roundtable organised by a non-government organisation, Carefronting Nigeria, in Kaduna, El-Rufai, represented by his spokesman, Samuel Aruwan, said the government was concerned about the security of life and property.

    He said the government appreciated the reservations and contributions of religious leaders and other stakeholders, who made their positions known, adding that some people had started politicising the good intention of the government to restore peace to Kaduna.

    The governor said in the bill, if passed, the Christian Association ofNigeria (CAN) and Jama’atu Nasir Islam (JNI) would have a framework to check strange ideological beliefs, stressing that the bill is not a law and everybody should make contributions.

    He noted that before the government came on board, there were killings in Southern Kaduna and Birnin Gwari axis of the state, “but now the situation is under control.”

    His words: “Government wants to curb extremism associated with religious beliefs. We are not stopping evangelism. We will not prevent people from practising their faith.

    “Kaduna State government means well for the people and wants to secure the life and property of residents. There are emerging threats and we need to take measures. We should support this bill.”

    Carefronting Nigeria Coordinator Maji Peters said they were moved to call stakeholders for discussion because of the controversies the bill had generated.

    He said the forum, tagged: ‘Kaduna State Religious Preaching Regulation Bill: Intention and Perception’, was aimed at getting the views of stakeholders and charting a course for peace and development.

    Director-General, Interfaith Mediation Namadi Musa said they had gone round the three senatorial zones to sensitise the people.

    He urged the lawmakers to make use of the public hearing so that people can make input.

    Among stakeholders at the forum were CAN, JNI, Christian Lawyers Fellowship of Nigeria (CLASFON), Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) and other religious and non-government organisations.

  • El-Rufai shuts Govt House Clinic

    El-Rufai shuts Govt House Clinic

    •Redeploys doctors, nurses to general hospitals

    Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has shut the Government House Clinic and redeployed its medical personnel to public hospitals.

    Drugs and equipment have been moved to the Yusuf Dansotho Hospital, Tudun Wada, Kaduna, while Government House workers have been directed to patronise the Yusuf Dansotho Hospital.

    The governor, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Samuel Aruwan, said the decisions were taken to boost the health care system.

    The statement said: “There are not yet enough doctors in the public health system. Therefore, it is not prudent to assign doctors, nurses and other medical workers to serve Government House alone. It is more beneficial to the wider society if the services of these medical personnel are made available to the public in a general hospital.

    “In addition, it is better that everyone working in the Government House uses the same health facilities as the public.”

    It said El-Rufai’s directive has been implemented.

    “Workers from the Government House Clinic have been redeployed to public hospitals. Drugs and medical equipment in the clinic have been evacuated and are being put to use at the Yusuf Dansotho Hospital.

    “Henceforth, Government House workers will go to the nearest public hospital to the Government House as other citizens.”

  • El-Rufai shuts Govt House Clinic, redeploys staff to General Hospitals

    El-Rufai shuts Govt House Clinic, redeploys staff to General Hospitals

    Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has closed the Government House Clinic and redeployed its medical personnel to public hospitals.
    The drugs and equipment in the clinic have also been moved to the Yusuf Dansotho Hospital, Tudun Wada, Kaduna, while Government House staff have been directed to henceforth use the Dansotho Hospital for their medical needs.
    Governor El-Rufai in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Samuel Aruwan said the decisions were taken to boost the healthcare system in the state by moving medical personnel, drugs and equipment to public hospitals.
    According to the statement, “There are not yet enough doctors in the public health system in Kaduna State, therefore it is not prudent to assign doctors, nurses and other medical staff to serve Government House alone. It is clearly more beneficial to the wider society if the services of these medical personnel were made available to the public in a general hospital.
    ” In addition, it is better that everyone working in the Government House uses the same health facilities as the general public.”
    Dr. Muhammad Bello Armaya’u, Medical Director of Yusuf Dansotho Hospital, confirmed that the hospital has received the drugs and equipment.
    He expressed gratitude to the Governor for the move, promising that the hospital will make good use of the extra capacity it has received.

  • Senator to El-Rufai: you lack right to license preachers

    Senator to El-Rufai: you lack right to license preachers

    The lawmaker representing Kaduna Central, Senator Shehu Sani, has said Governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai has no right to license preachers.

    He said the religious preaching bill sent by the governor to the House of Assembly is uncalled for.

    The senator, who spoke yesterday in Kaduna at the 40th anniversary of Ansarul-Deen Youth Association of Nigeria (ADYAN), said: “Governor El-Rufai does not have a right to license preachers. Every Nigerian has a right to freedom of association and speech.

    “The bill sent to the assembly is a military decree, which is not applicable in a democratic setting.

    “There are laws to checkmate whoever hides under religion to foment trouble. This decree dusted and sent to the assembly in the name of a bill to regulate religious preaching is uncalled for.” He condemned the alleged plan by the government to tax petty traders, to raise the dwindling Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

    Sani, who was given an award by the Islamic organisation, said it came at a time he was yet to deliver his campaign promises.

    Said he: “I’m happy to be honoured, but I cannot celebrate because the award is coming at a time when Nigerians are suffering. There is no electricity, there is queue at filling stations and so on.

  • El-Rufai needs politics, not activism

    El-Rufai needs politics, not activism

    Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State has deliberately and complacently, if not self-righteously, marched briskly into another controversy. The politician and technocrat seems built for controversy than for anything else. This time he has got himself embroiled in a religious dispute over whether the state can legislate religious practice, particularly by licensing preaching. He has therefore forwarded an executive bill to the state legislature setting out among other guidelines how preachers may be licensed and the conditions under which they can preach. The bill is expected to replace a military edict on the same subject promulgated in 1984. But confronted by a horde of anti-regulation sceptics, the governor has simply shrugged his shoulders and soldiered on. The bill is not new anyway, he says, because it had existed under a different guise under a past military government.

    The motive for generating the bill is sound. Kaduna State has a reputation for religious volatility, a disturbing reputation forged more than three decades ago and sustained by episodic bloodletting on a scale rivalled only by the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency. If the state ever witnessed ethnic disturbances, it was only because it had first manifested as religious schisms perpetrated through Nigeria’s ethnic fault lines. And if there is some peace and quietude at the moment, it is simply to the extent that the volcano has not reached its eruption temperature. Indigenes of Kaduna have learnt to live with the fear of indiscriminate flare-ups, even as they have gradually and quietly resigned themselves to segregated living. So, it is not out of place for the crusading Mallam el-Rufai to attempt what he sees through his often utopian prism as a permanent solution.

    The bill, now more widely referred to as Gov. el-Rufai’s preaching bill, pitches constitutionalists against peaceniks, with the latter, because of their distaste for armed conflict, seeing nothing wrong in enforcing controls on religious groups in the state. No one can accurately determine at the moment which group is gaining the upper hand, the peaceniks or constitutionalists. And it is not clear whether even among the state’s or country’s religions the bill is popular. On the surface, however, some argue, the bill appears to target extremist Muslim preachers. But underneath, warn some Christian leaders, the bill targets and stymies the evangelical underpinnings of Jesus Christ’s mandate to his followers. For many constitutionalists, the bill is so fraught with problems that it is virtually dead on arrival. According to them, the bill stands on very shaky constitutional grounds, though no one can guess how the state’s lawmakers view the bill: whether with wary eyes, or with indifference, or with approving glances. To say the bill is controversial is, therefore, an understatement.

    What is certain is that while Gov. el-Rufai has modified the 1984 military-inspired edict on the same subject, he has not appeared to examine why it failed and was abandoned. Mechanically speaking, both Christianity and Islam have been accommodated in the preaching bill in terms of ensuring representation, not necessarily fairness, in licensing preachers. However, no matter how well they are structured and sensibly constituted, the registration panels, which shut out other religions but the largest two, may find some difficulties in capturing, acknowledging and sanctioning the various doctrinal differences acceptable to the state. Indeed, left to the Christian panel , for instance, it is hard to see them in the 15th or 16th century approving Martin Luther’s radical and reformist ministry had he applied for a licence. More, had Jesus Christ lived in Mallam el-Rufai’s Kaduna, not only would he spurn the licensing requirement, his application would most certainly be turned down if he sought one.

    There are incontestable moral grounds for the bill. As many other countries battling terrorism have shown, it may indeed be reckless to pretend that some regulations are not necessary to put a lid on extremism. They are. The problem is how it should be done, and whether they should even come as laws which stand the risk of conflicting with the constitution. The many bitter religious cum ethnic battles Kaduna State has fought — perhaps more than any other state — may offer sound pretext for regulation. For a state that appears eternally poised on the edge of religious conflagration, the governor may indeed be right and sensible to look and think proactively in anticipating religious conflicts and proffering solutions to either pre-empt or respond to them firmly.

    However, it is doubtful whether the solution lies in more regulation or lawmaking. The 1984 edict fell into abeyance for reasons the governor should not find too difficult to fathom. Chief among the reasons is that anywhere in the world, it is extremely difficult to regulate religion outside the laws and the constitution, especially in a democracy with a liberal constitution. Even in authoritarian climes, the regulation of religions eventually collapses under the weight of its own contradictions. Should the Kaduna State House of Assembly pass the preaching bill, there is little doubt that enforcement, insensitively and unwisely conferred on Sharia and Customary courts, would be so controversial and problematic that it would be challenged successfully in higher courts. There is also little doubt that once enforcement appears skewed, that itself would raise an avalanche of complaints and allegations of bias against the governor, his team and the enforcers. The preaching bill, notwithstanding the laudable task it hopes to undertake, is really a needless piece of legislation whose drawbacks cannot be mitigated by the governor’s boldness or altruism.

    What is even worse is that the governor himself lacks the tact to sell the bill. Whether during his service at the federal level as Minister of the Federal Capital City (FCT) or as governor, Mallam el-Rufai has not been able to transcend his messianic disposition. He speaks combatively with a disturbing cocksureness that grates on the nerves of those who disagree with him. Very often his cost-benefit analyses are skewed in favour of the benefit side, and his manner of implementation peremptory and unfeeling. He regards himself a technocrat, and the country agrees with him. But he is now a politician who must manage his technocratic ways with the suavity of a principled politician. Mallam el-Rufai has not been able to do this. In fact, for a governor who adjudged the Shiites guilty of crime even before investigations had been carried out into the December 2015 Zaria clash between the Nigerian Army and some members of the Islamic Movement, it is difficult to imagine he can be trusted to show strict as opposed to benevolent neutrality when religions clash, or when those who oppose his rules and regulations test the might of the state.

    So far, whether on the matter of this preaching bill or the bulldozing of properties, or that of relating with his critics such as Senator Shehu Sani, Mallam el-Rufai has neither spoken nor acted as a politician or a democrat. Reacting to those who opposed the preaching bill, he had said: “But what I found out is that the elite have one weapon, and that is religion, and it is sad. But, unfortunately for them, they have not studied me. If anyone had studied my career at FCT, he would have known that playing religious card would fail all the time, because the moment you play that card, I know you are an adversary that needs to be put down and I will not look back until I am done with you.” Yet, he rode on the wings of the change momentum during the 2015 elections and won, partly because of the popular disenchantment with the Goodluck Jonathan government. He will be sailing near the wind to think he has secured the right to talk down to the people and force laws on them before he has been able to persuade them.

    Some of his bills, including the preaching bill, may be sensible in a few parts, and the motives pure, but he needs the wisdom of a sage and the patience of a true liberal and tested politician to govern a complex and eternally agitated state like Kaduna. He should go on to cap these attributes, should he prove capable of acquiring them, with the verbal forbearance of many of his northern role models. Given his general proclivity and the abrasive manner he ran the FCT with the connivance of ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, he will need extraordinary and herculean effort to reclaim himself from his former set ways. That prospect is sadly a little far-fetched.

    Rather than initiate bills seeking to regulate contentious religious matters, the governor should explore other means of managing religious disagreements and containing extremism in the state. The 1984 edict did not work under the military; there is no reason to think an improved law based on that edict will work now or in the near future. Mallam el-Rufai has done little to persuade the state of the necessity for and relevance of the preaching bill; his reputation as a gadfly and his impetuousness stand in the way of sound and modernising politicking. He needs to change first before changing Kaduna. His task, as he acknowledges, is made doubly difficult by the prevailing economic crisis. He should, therefore, find no difficulty in understanding that the mood of the moment does not favour his flighty lawmaking adventures, nor does the edginess of the people condone the imperiousness of his messianic predilection. Since he has begun to recognise that managing FCT was a cakewalk compared with governing a state, he should be optimistic that that epiphany may yet help transform him into a more robust politician than the militician he had schooled himself to become since the Obasanjo presidency.

  • El-Rufai’s preaching law

    El-Rufai’s preaching law

    SIR: Controversies have trailed the executive bill for a Law to Substitute the Kaduna State Religious Preaching Law, 1984, sent to the Kaduna State House of Assembly by Governor Nasir El-Rufai. It sought to curb hate speeches which has been a major source of religious crisis not only in Kaduna but in the north.

    It requires a cleric to obtain a preaching permit from the state government, renewable after one year. To play any cassette containing “religious recordings in which abusive language is used against any person or religious organisation or religious leaders (past or present) is to contravene the law.

    The bill, if passed into law will prohibit sales of religious books, usage of abusive and derogatory terms in describing any religion among others.

    Many say this bill is a landmine and an ambush laid for religious worships which contains lots of unholy snippets.

    The governor needs to handle the issue with utmost care. Experiences have shown that people are driven by the sublime passion to protect their religions from laws which they think is inimical to their worship. The onus of explanation resides with government to avoid rancour. The volatility of Nigerian state, the frenzied passion for ones’ faith and lessons of religious crises must guide our resolve to religious reforms. It must be reiterated that at any given time such issues comes to the front burner like the one in Kaduna State, some religious entrepreneurs tend to rise against it. Some are germane while others are out rightly frivolous.

    This bill should have taken cognisance of the peculiarities of individual religious practices and worships. For instance, Christian religious worships go beyond time limitation. Church vigils and programmes take place even all through the night. There are worships centres built far away from residential areas. Their activities do not in any way disturb anyone. Government should have prescribed a sound-proof auditorium for those within the residential areas who wish to worship beyond 8:00pm as a protection for the right of those who may be disturbed. Consultation is one attribute of democracy. The non-inclusion or due consideration of the interests of adherents of other religions is a minus to the bill. Which law regulates their kinds of worship?  This bill should be withdrawn for the grey areas to be trashed out.

     

    Sunday Onyemaechi Eze,

    sunnyeze02@yahoo.com.

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  • Why we must regulate religious preaching -El-Rufai

    Why we must regulate religious preaching -El-Rufai

    Ten months down the line as Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai spoke on his administration’s efforts to make the state great again, even as he cleared the air on most of his policies, which have suffered widespread criticisms, especially the recent religious preaching bill. In this interview with select journalists he explains why religious preaching must be regulated in the state. Abdulgafar Alabelewe was there.

    AS THE Governor of this state, how has it been in the last ten months running a complex and combustible state like Kaduna?  What are your tribulations and trials and challenges?

    I want to say it has been an interesting and successful journey and we are grateful to the Almighty God for his intervention that led to our election. I know we got elected because the majority of the people of the state wanted a change because the way things were going was not acceptable to them and that is why they all came out to vote for us. We are very grateful.

    This is the toughest time in Nigerian history to be a state Governor, particularly states that have been ruled by the PDP for a long period. Taking over from a system that has institutionalised itself in 16years and trying to change direction is always tough. But in addition, we are taking over at the time when the crude oil price has collapsed by 70% and we have inherited structures and machineries of government but most importantly, an attitude in the public service and within the larger community of a country that has been selling crude oil at $100 per barrel. So, expectations remain high while the revenues are very low.

    The third reason is that I never expected that running a state is very different from being a federal minister. I thought that running a state would be the same as running the Federal Capital Territory but I was wrong at that. I have seen that things are quite different and more complex.

    One of the challenges we are facing in this state is that everything seems to be politicised or ethnicised or “religionised”. A very simple problem that can be discussed and resolved by logic and facts becomes converted into issues of ethnicity and religion and so on. So, these are some of the challenges we have to face but we are doing the best we can.

    What we saw clearly in June was that unless we did something to reduce the cost of governance, we would end up being a government that only pays salary from month to month and nothing more, which was what the previous government ended up becoming in the last few months because they could not make the adjustment. But on the other hand, we are also raising revenue.

    So, we are generating more internal revenue than depending on the federation account. We are doing all these because we know there is a limit to how you can cut cost. You can’t cut personnel cost. You can verify, remove ghost workers but salaries and pensions are fixed cost and you have to pay that every month.

    You compared your tenure as a Minister of FCT and being a governor. You said being a minister is not the same as being a governor and you went ahead to say that  in Kaduna State,  every issue is given religion and ethnic definition. Can you explain further?

    I think the difference of running FCT and Kaduna State is a matter of both scale and scope. FCT is 8000 square kilometres and that is one local government in this state.  Kaduna State is 46,000km square kilometres in just land size alone. And when I receive any briefing on a project while I was in FCT, the moment the briefing is over, I would say let’s go and see it because you can go to any part of Abuja and come back that same day. The scope part is that the multiplicities of function that you face as a governor are sometimes absent in the FCT. In FCT, I didn’t have someone in charge of environment. The place is small we are busy developing roads and so on. Abuja was not designed to be a commercial city. So there are many issues that you find here that are off the radar in the FCT. But in addition to this, as the minister of the FCT, I was isolated from the politics of it. The president was the governor of the FCT. If I have any issue, I go to the President, he signs off and I do what I want. I don’t have to explain to anybody. Once I convince President Obasanjo, that is it, I just moved on.

    Finally resources; the FCT is the federal government and it can raise unlimited amounts of money. The minister   can go to the market and issue bond and raise money when they need it because they are sovereign. But a state government cannot easily go and raise money. A federal government can go to the CBN and raise an overdraft but a state government cannot do it, it needs to go through the state assembly. First, I need to have an Executive Council resolution, before going   to the state assembly before I get the overdraft. So, the context and everything is different.

    Coming to the second part of your question, this is something I find both disturbing and disappointing. In any argument and situations, if you have your facts and you are right, you don’t need to refer to religion. Religion doesn’t win arguments for you. What I have found in life is that the moment a person introduces religion in any situation, I know he is wrong because if you are right, you have facts and you can justify your position, why bring God into it? People only revert to religion and ethnicity when they have ran out of convincing arguments. What I found in Kaduna State is that in everything, even a thing as simple as ‘come and eat’, people can bring religion into it. I thought more than any state in Nigeria, Kaduna has suffered more in terms of religious and ethnic divisions and that should be lesson to us to walk away from that but what I found out  is that the elite  have one weapon and that is religion and it is sad. But, unfortunately for them they have not studied me. If anyone has studied my career at FCT, he would know that playing religious card will fail all the time, because the moment you play that card, I know you are an adversary that needs to be put down and I will not look back until I am done with you.

    Our religion is our personal business. Most people in this country believe in one God. We believe we are worshipping the same God in different ways. The moment I got elected, the number of people that came to me who wanted to be the Secretary of Muslim Pilgrims Board showed to me that there is a problem. Nobody wanted to be Commissioner of Finance and so on. That means there is something happening there in the name of religion.

    But honestly one of the legacies (Architect) Barnabas Bala Bantex (Deputy Governor) and I want to leave behind in this state is the complete separation of religion from governance and hypocrisy associated with. I say hypocrisy because the same person that preaches and incites people against a Christian has no problem going to the hospital to see a Christian doctor if the doctor is good. He would not remember that the doctor is a Christian. In my opinion, they are just blowing this thing to cause problem and distract ordinary people while they take advantage of the situation and system.

    I hope you (journalists) will join us and pray for us to succeed because even in your reporting, you can help build the society or destroy it. If you continue to report division, the society will be divided. On our part and in our government, we don’t have that division. What we put premium on is getting the job done. Of course we live in a multi-ethnic and diverse society, so in our appointments we have to look and balance our appointments.

    The problem that we found in the state is that ethnicity and religion come first, competence and capacity last. We want to reverse that; because we believe that those who work, those that are competent, those that can deliver benefit everyone. I don’t need to have someone from my local government if the government is working. But if the government is not working and then everybody is stealing, then I would want to have a representative there.

    You talked about the ongoing verification of workers and the fact that the workers have been patient. My question is, is there a time frame of ending this exercise?

    The reason why I don’t want to say it would end is practical. First of all, as an employer, you need to check the numbers of your employees from time to time and it is normal. It does not mean that after this verification exercise, we will stop or not do it again. We would but not every other month as we have been doing since we came. Our hope is that this verification that we are doing will uncover all the loopholes. We are dealing with crooks and staunch criminals that don’t want to give up the revenue from the ghost workers. So as we block one area of abuse, they open another.

    We know that we have a new payment platform and a new financial management platform for the state. It is called SIFMIS (State Integrated Financial Management Information System). It is a project that was financed by the World Bank and completed two years ago but the system refused it to come on stream. We came and revived it in October and we have paid our salaries in January using the system for the first time. Earlier on, there was a consultant that was preparing the payroll but now it is our own people doing it, using this new platform and our own people are getting used to it. But, with the verification we are now doing with Bank Verification Number, everyone must have a deposit account in bank, and that will make us 99% comfortable. Unless if in the process other vista of abuses are created, we do not expect to do any verification any time soon. Maybe once or twice in a year we will do it just to check. We are comfortable with this one. I have apologised before and I am doing so again to all those who have been victims of this verification issues because their names are being omitted. Some people   get paid this month and the next month their names are removed from the payroll.

    Just last week, TUC and NLC expressed worry over a form that was designed by the state government,  asking workers whether they intend to be members  of the unions or not. Can you shed more light on why you decided to make unionism optional?

    When we came into office, I wasn’t paid for three months. When I finally got an alert of three months’ salary, I asked a very simple question; thank you for the pay, but where is my pay slip? Because it is normal to have a pay slip that will show you your basic salary and allowances, deductions for tax and any loan and so on. It took about 3-4 months before the Accountant General could organise our pay slip. So, because of the absence of pay slip, if the money they paid you last month is higher or lower than that of this month, then there is no explanation for it and that is where the problem started.

    I believe trade unions are important, they offer services to their members and if I am an employee particularly a lower level employee, I would join the trade union. So that when there is wahala on me, they would take it up as a group. Personally, I would support it. However, the law is clear; you have to legally declare that you are a member before we can deduct your money and that was how our argument between TUC and NLC started.  We must learn in this country to respect laws even if they are against us because one day it is that same law that will protect us. One of the problems we find in this country is selective obedience of the law and I am not saying this because I studied law, but I believe law is the foundation of every civilised society. If the law is not good, go and change it; there is legislature in the country but if there is an existing law, comply with it. This has been my basic principle in life which I practice in every assignment I am given. There is always need to have boundary between union and government. So these are some of the things we are battling with. It is not that we are against the unions, but we are just doing the right thing. The unions are very supportive. Throughout the verification exercise, they stood by us and we appreciate that but that does not mean we should do what is unlawful or what is wrong.

    We don’t go looking for trouble or controversy. Anytime you want to do what you believe is strictly right, the system just rises against you, then you are tagged as arrogant, stubborn and some who doesn’t listen to advice. But the truth of the matter is that we just want to do what is right and lawful. We want to stop operating a government of discretion. We want to have rules that apply to everyone.

    If you are protesting trade union membership or verification, you can protest because the right to protest is guaranteed in the constitution, so long as you don’t block public highways or harass people. I like everyone that has a grievance to protest and we will look into it but if your protest requires us to break the law to satisfy you, we will not.

    One of the government policies that has generated a lot of controversy is the religious preaching bill. What does the government want to achieve when it becomes law and how are you going to tackle the anxiety that it has generated among the people?

    Well, Kaduna State more than any state, if you take out the Yobe, Borno  and Adamawa axis that have suffered from Boko Haram insurgency, I think this state has suffered the most from death and destruction of property, due to misuse and abuse of religion. More people have been killed in Kaduna from the words that people have said and if you go back to history, some of you are not old enough but I was when Maitasine happened. He was a Camerounian that came to Nigeria and started preaching. The Emir of Kano had him deported back to Cameroun, that is the grandfather of the current Emir. After then, he managed to smuggle himself back again and continued preaching. He was preaching a version of Islam that was intolerant that called other Muslims pagans and so on and so forth. But in spite of what he was preaching, he began to acquire followers and we all know what happened. Military operation needed to be mounted to flush them out. Those that escaped from the Maitasine moved to Borno State and started the Kalakato sect, which again led to many deaths and destruction in the early 90s. All these came from people that are not trained in religious matters, people that woke up and started preaching and acquiring followers and inevitably that sect will grow in large number to threaten communities and there will be clashes.

    That was also how Muhammed Yusuf started. He was a student of Sheik Jaafar Adam in Kano. They fell out because Jaafar felt that some of the views he was expressing were extreme and intolerant. He went and started his own sect and we know what happened and we are still dealing with it. So, when you have such kind of things happening in your country, I think as leaders, we have to sit down and examine ourselves and the society and say what we can do to prevent that.   In my opinion, it is the lack of regulation of religion that led to all these circle of death and destructions. Just recently we had the Shi’ite problem in Zaria, following a similar pattern. I believe that before you start preaching in any religion, you should have gone through a system of education, training and some kind of certification. Even those that deal with the physical life get certified let alone those that deal with the spiritual life. We initiated this bill from the Kaduna State Security Council, based on reports of new sects emerging in the state. There is one around Makarfi called Gausiyya, they do their Zuhr prayer around 11am, different from other Muslims. This is how this thing starts and if you don’t resolve it quickly, they grow into something else.

    A woman in Makarfi said Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is speaking to her and sick people started coming to her for their healing. The husband of this woman is busy collecting N1,000 as consultancy fee before people can see his wife. We had to take steps to end that movement because before you know it people would start coming from far and wide and this woman would become our next problem.

    It was two or three of these that compelled us in the security council to ask a question, whether there is a law that regulates preaching. Then we are told there is a law; since 1984 after the Maitasine problems, the administration   passed the law. It was subsequently amended several times to increase the fine and the imprisonment term. This is a living problem and we know it. Christian priests, the ones I know go to seminary and spend so many years there, study under a more experienced Reverend to learn what to say and what not to say.

    Religious leaders don’t preach hatred; they preach peace, tolerance and love. But today in my religion of Islam, anybody can wake up and start a sect, no control. In those days, from Islamiyya School if you choose that line, you need to study more books. After that you go to East (Borno area) for more studies and training, then from there you go to a Mosque and begin to call prayer before you become Imam in any mosque. Before you become an Imam of a Friday mosque, the community must agree that you are well learned and competent. But now everyone can build a mosque, put loudspeakers and call himself Imam and start disturbing people at night.

    A priest that has gone through thorough teachings and training would not go and ask people to cause trouble and kill each other. They are trained men of God. In Christendom today, we all know that some people would drink something overnight and wake up the next day and claim they are Apostles, that God has spoken to them. You cannot disproof that because you are not there with him and he begins to collect followers and when he begins to preach hatred what can you do? Is that the society we want? This is the question. The logic behind this law is to strengthen the 1984 laws so as to regulate and ensure that those that are given the opportunity to preach at least know what they are doing, This is our goal; we don’t have anything against any religion or anybody. Some people have argued that there is freedom of religion, of course; section 38 is very clear we must not have a state religion, every Nigerian is allowed to practice his faith or even if he  doesn’t have any religion at all.

    What word do you have for those that are saying, it is aimed at stopping the practice of Christianity and Islam in the state?

    Well, I have not seen anyone talking about Islam actually. Most of the people that say I would die, as if I would not die, are people who call themselves Christian clergy. Of course, I will die. If that apostle is truly an apostle, he should mention the day I will die. There is nothing in that law that prevents or infringes the practice of religion. It seeks to ensure that those that preach religion are qualified, trained and certified by their peers to do it. And some sections of the media have made it as if the law was drafted against Christianity, it is most irresponsible and I have nothing to say except to leave the matter to God.

    During your campaigns, the key points that your opponents used against you is the issue of demolition. At that time, you had promised that you were not going to demolish, but here we are having issues of land recovery exercise especially in schools and lately the Millennium City and Gbagyi Villa. What actually went wrong?

    We want to recover school land for obvious reasons. Our population is growing and we need more land for schools. Every year, Nigeria population increases by six million people and already the schools we have are congested because the land earmarked for them have been encroached upon by communities largely because of our carelessness. Because if you fence up a school land, it would be more difficult to encroach upon but the previous governments have not done that and now we are doing that. We started with the Alhudahuda College, Zaria. Zaria is my father’s home town. Those that are living in Alhudahuda College are mostly Hausa-Fulani and Muslims like me. We started there because we noticed that the college exhibited the most serious form of abuse and impunity and we started from there. Now, the college is clean, we are fencing the school and moving to the next phase and that is the Rimi College. We saw that unlike the former college, most of the people living on the land of Rimi College are title holders. But Alhudahuda College cost us nothing, no compensation because the Land Use Act and the Nigeria Urban and Regional Planning Act say, you are only entitled to compensation if you have Certificate of Occupancy and development permit. So,  if you have C of O and no permission to build from KAPSUDA, it will be taken down as illegal building. You need both. In Alhudahuda College, they didn’t have any because it was essentially some Village Heads or traditional rulers saying to the people you can build here. We moved to Rimi College and that was a bit more difficult because we found out that they all have certificates of occupancy. So, recovering the land in Rimi College cost us N380 million for compensation and we had to give them alternative land. That is the law and we complied with the law even if the beneficiaries are PDP people. In Rimi College, it was not demolition, we call it land recovery. Most of the buildings there will be used as staff housing or hostels and that would make Rimi College a boarding school again. I think it is a tragedy because it was one of our most important boarding schools in Kaduna established in 1946 and was later converted to a day school. We are restoring it to a proper boarding school and we will use some of those mansions that we paid for as student hostels, staff housing and so on.

    There are other places that have not caught your attention but work is going on. The one that you will ask if I don’t comment on it is the Kaduna Polytechnic and Gbagyi Villa. That is not in our programme because Kaduna Polytechnic is not a state institution; we didn’t even know there was a problem there because it is not one of our schools. We have the list of all our schools and we know exactly what needs to be done and we are doing it quietly. The Rector of Kaduna Polytechnic paid us a courtesy call and complained that land earmarked for the polytechnic has been encroached upon. So we asked him to write. He gave us the details and we checked and realised that, yes they were given this land in the seventies. The land was properly acquired, compensation was paid, we have the records and the name of those that collected the compensation and it is polytechnic land. When the federal government took over the polytechnic, it moved from being polytechnic land to federal government land. No Governor can touch federal land. Even if I want to give land in Kaduna Polytechnic, I cannot because I am disallowed by the Land Use Act. So, these people that encroached have picked a fight with the federal government.

    Millennium city is slightly different. The land was acquired by the state government, compensation was duly paid to some of the customary title holders and there are some sections where compensation was not paid because they refused to accept it. Because there is a small lacuna where some part of Millennium City compensation was not collected, all the villagers, including those that collected the compensation and pocketed it, used the opportunity to chase out developers on the ground that compensation was not paid. We have the plan to build 20,000 housing capacity in Kaduna in the next four years. So we brought some developers that would build at their own cost in the millennium city. We took them to the part where compensation has been paid and gave them title. The villagers chased them away. I went to the Village Heads because I know they are the organizers of the youth that are chasing the developers. I told them that you have been paid compensation and so you don’t have the right to do what you are doing. What he wants is that they want to expand the village beyond the boundary and I said they would not have that. I said we should go back to the village and plan it otherwise it will be like Obalende and Ikoyi. I have seen that in Abuja. It is like Garki village and Garki. You just create a slum within the city. The income inequality and disparity would lead to other problems because all the thieves attacking the GRA would be from that slum. So, when government officials went there for inspection, they found out that people had already created the extension for themselves. So I asked them to bring the structures down. In this state, as long as I remain the Governor, nobody will get involved in an illegal development and get away with it. I want everybody to understand that.

  • Labour to El-Rufai: publish names of those aiding ghost workers

    Labour to El-Rufai: publish names of those aiding ghost workers

    The leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Kaduna State has urged Governor Nasir El-Rufai to substantiate his claims and publish the names of the workers aiding and abetting ghost workers.It said the call became imperative, considering the huge sum of money alleged to be involved monthly, which was big enough to assist the government in its developmental programmes.

    In a statement issued yesterday by Comrades Adamu Ango and Shehu Mohammed, chairman of NLC and TUC, the leaders said union membership was a constitutional issue, which was above the jurisdiction of any state government. “Labour unions will resist any attempt to polarise and create disharmony among their members.”

    The leaders said: “No amount of campaign of calumny from any quarter will deter us from demanding our right.”

  • El-Rufai and Kaduna’s antichrists

    El-Rufai and Kaduna’s antichrists

    For daring a bill to regulate religious practice in Kaduna State, Governor Nasir el-Rufai’s explosively intolerant opponents, reading religious chauvinism into it all, have tagged him “antichrist”.

    But from their hysteria, not the governor, but they, sound every decibel the antichrist.  By their deeds, declares the Bible, the divine Christian constitution, we shall know them!

    For starters, an Auchi, Edo-based Pentecostal pastor, Apostle Johnson Suleiman, let fly his own version of Christian fatwa: the governor must withdraw the bill or he dies!

    Is that the good pastor’s interpretation of Christ’s turn-the-other-cheek doctrine, in this blessed season of Easter — Christ, that was divine, yet meekly submitted to be mauled and crucified, just to cleanse humanity of sin?

    Or, given the Islamic ring to the pastor’s surname, is it a neophyte getting too excitable for his own good, preaching hate instead of love, just to score one for Christianity against its great “enemy”, Islam?

    But even if Islam is Christianity’s enemy (which it is not, though their doctrines differ), didn’t Christ insist you must pray for your enemies?

    Besides, the irate apostle (didn’t the Bible say be angry, but don’t sin?) must be told that theocratic arrogance — which is what his show of ire amounts to — doesn’t excuse the breach of the law in a secular republic.

    Threatening a sitting governor with death, for whatever excuse, could well amount to treason, if the affected high official of state decides to press charges.

    Another piqued Christian brother, on his facebook wall, gleefully posted an el-Rufai picture defaced with a giant X, in red.  His furious and sweeping verdict: “This Uncircumcised Philistine!  Cannot stop the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in Kaduna State!!!”

    But pray, is the proposed  “Bill for a Law to substitute the Kaduna State Regulation of Religious Preaching Edict No. 7 of 1984” targeted solely against Christians?  Hardly, though this emotive reaction would suggest otherwise.

    Just as well it is nothing but hot fallacy.  Calling a fellow citizen “uncircumcised Philistine” could satisfy religious bile.  But if you distil history from theology, that phrase clearly belonged to the pre-Christian era, the Judaist era, when the ancient Israelites fought turf wars against virulent opposition in the Promised Land which, by the way, belonged to some people before they got there.

    Judaists, if they wish, could luxuriate in such cavalier bigotry.  Not Christians.  Though Christ talked of Jews and Gentiles, there was nothing chauvinistic about it: just a realistic aggregation of humanity, beyond just Jews, since all, according to the Christian creed, are entitled to Christ’s redemption.

    Anyway, applying psychoanalysis to Nigerian users of facebook would appear a disturbing but penetrating beam into the innermost crevices of their soul: the ultra-dirty id, without the restraining strictures of the ego and super-ego.

    It is the classical Freudian slip, a raw exposé into the thick jungle of the soul, where unfettered savagery reigns.

    Still, nothing from this discourse presumes el-Rufai a saint; and his opponents, irredeemable devils.

    Indeed, from his tenure as Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) director-general to Abuja minister, both stewardship he proudly rendered in Accidental Public Servant, his Obasanjo-era public service memoirs, the not-so-accidental elected governor of Kaduna assaults you with his in-your-face manifest goodness of his intentions, no matter how controversial.

    That enlists him needless enemies, especially among those who feel he is too proud, too huffy and absolutely insufferable.  An acute mind that does not suffer fools gladly, and who gets irritated and shows it when folks are not making sense, not a few dismiss him as “arrogant”.

    He may well need to seriously work on his emotional intelligence.  But his mark on the public space, both at BPE and as Abuja minister, would appear indelible.

    But if the new law is targeted at both Christians and Muslims, why is it that, apart from a few Muslim lobbies, only Christians foam in the mouth, rave and mouth threats?

    Well, maybe for too long, religion has had too unfettered a rein in a secular republican state. In Kaduna, the dominantly Christian southern Kaduna vs the Kaduna establishment, which leaning is clearly Muslim, appears a crusade of all seasons.

    Generally in the North, Islam appears the faith of power, which has the effect of radicalising the Christian swathe of the populace, with their penchant for ultra-sensitivity in faith matters.  But then whoever is not feeling their pinch can’t teach them how, or how not, to yelp.

    Even at the federal level, with the northern domination of power for a long time, Islam has had its fair share in Nigerian power metaphysics and imaging.

    But that has been a rogue balance of a sort, since the departing British colonising powers had already codified the Christianisation of government business.  That is why Sunday (when Christians go to church), not Friday (when Muslims observe their Jumat), was the original civil service rest day.

    Which is why Governor el-Rufai and the Kaduna legislature must ensure the proposed legislation goes through the grill of public hearings and other legislative in-built devices to ensure the law, when passed, is fair, just and equitable to all.

    But one thing the state must not do: surrender its constitutionally given powers to legislate for the good of its people, just because of some religious hysteria.

    That would be succumbing to theocratic outlawry — which really is a contradiction in terms because both Christianity and Islam clearly define their relationship with secular powers: and every true Christian and Muslim must be bound by that.

    Besides, the 1999 Constitution, as amended, fully empowers the state to regulate religious practice.  While section 38(1) guarantees religious freedom, section 45(1) mandates the government to make “reasonable justifiable” regulatory laws “in the interest of public safety, public order, public morality or public health or for the purpose of protecting the rights and freedoms of other persons.”

    People easily forget that Kaduna used to be a cauldron of faith riots and killing; until Governor Ahmed Makarfi (1999-2007) somewhat found an antidote.  Even then, that did not avert the Shiite crisis, which recent tragic escalation a judicial commission of inquiry is still trying to sort out.

    So, if el-Rufai decides to be pro-active, so long as he is fair and equitable to all, what’s wrong with that?

    Apostle Suleiman’s boast that he needs no licence to preach anywhere is not only hot gas to his revved up congregation, it is also akin to theocratic outlawry.  If the Kaduna law is passed and he breaches it, he risks a gaol term, pure and simple.

    It is the same outlawry that, with due respect to genuine Shiite grievances, would make that commune pledge allegiance to Iran, while the Nigerian state secures and guarantees its members; with the practice of their faith.

    Now, see what tragedy that privilege without responsibility has caused everybody?  Don’t such misguided notions negate the Social Contract?

    Let lawful and responsible religious communes, Christian and Muslim, rally to ensure the proposed Kaduna law is fair and equitable to all.  Religious hysteria can’t strip the government powers the constitution has granted it.