Bill to Regulate Christian Preaching in Nigeria “injurious” to Church: Christian Leaders

He added, “The law is not popular and cannot be allowed to stay. I want to believe that the law is against God. It baffles any right-thinking person in Nigeria and elsewhere that preaching would be regulated.”

“How can you regulate God? How can you call God to order? The law cannot function in a circular state like Nigeria,” the Christian leader posed and said.

The CAN chairman in Benue State noted that religious leaders in Nigeria “cannot fold their arms to watch the implementation of the law that is anti-God.”

At the November 9 press conference, Rev. Leva also expressed concern about the condition of 1.5million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Benue State urging the Federal Government to take “urgent” steps to resettle them in their communities and to enable them return to their farms.

He further noted that the suffering of the IDPs, who had remained in the camps for over three years after being sacked from their ancestral homes by armed herdsmen, “should be a source of concern for the federal government.”

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“It is disheartening and a clear indication of insensitivity on the part of the federal government that the IDPs in the various camps in the state are still suffering, more than three years after the federal government had promised to resettle them,” he said.

Rev. Leva also said that the situation of the IDPs had already taken its toll on food production in the country as farming activities were no longer going on in several Benue communities because the communities had been deserted and taken over by armed herdsmen.

“Let me point out that the repercussions occasioned by the continuous stay of the IDPs in the camps and the occupation of the houses of the original owners by the Fulani herdsmen are already glaring for all Nigerians to see,” he said.

He added, “It is indisputable that Benue State is the food basket of the nation and it is equally beyond doubt that the food basket has been threatened.”

“The able-bodied young men who would have been into farming activities are either dead or in IDPs camps and have not been into farming all these years,” Rev. Leva said.

According to the CAN leader, the woes of the IDPs do not just affect Benue people but the entire Nigerians, and that “Prices of food stuff are skyrocketing beyond the reach of average Nigerians.”

Jude Atemanke is a Cameroonian journalist with a passion for Catholic Church communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Buea in Cameroon. Currently, Jude serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.