Nigeria’s road to godlessness

Exactly what aspect of the Federal Road Safety Corps (Amendment) Bill 2026, which prescribes a N50,000 fine, or six months’ imprisonment, or both, for anyone who preaches inside a (moving or stationary) commercial bus, is going to prevent accidents on the road?

One is even minded asking if the asinine law will apply to those female “Isese” worshippers, usually decked in white costumes, “shaki” shawls, cowry shell necklaces, flywhisks and metal rattlers that they shake while praying for the loose change that they can extract from passengers who are about to embark on journeys on Nigeria’s dangerous roads.

The ostensible purpose of the bill, which also prohibits hawking or trading inside buses, is to eliminate the (possible noise pollution?) distractions that can compromise the safety of the drivers and their passengers who travel on the highways or commute within metropolises like Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, or Enugu.

Also, the bill is intended to check drivers from driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, discourage drivers from disobeying traffic lights, road signs, permanent markings, control devices, among others, and reckless driving, which is good and commendable.

The N100,000, or two years jail term, or both, that may be imposed on those who contravene this latter group of offences are also appropriate. Laws like these exist and are enforceable in any civilised country. But to now add preaching inside buses? That is an unnecessary overkill! If the proposers are not accused of being anti-Christ, they would at least be anti-religion.

Whoever initiated the Bill for consideration, and the Senate that dedicated precious time to listen to approve the part that preaching inside buses is an offence that should be sanctioned, display a high deficiency of a sense of humour and religious tolerance.

How does preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, or of the Holy Prophet Mohammed, or of the efficacy of “Isese” by its acolytes, distract a driver from concentrating on the job of driving, where a driver can hardly hear the evangelism or supplications of the preacher carried out in exchange for the willing “offerings” of the “congregants?”

The proposer and the (idle) Senate that considered it may not realise that in Nigeria, where the devil lurks in the hearts of passengers and drivers alike, the preachments may just be able to ward off the blood-sucking evil spirits that cause the accidents that the Bill intends to prevent.

They need to rethink their approach to the matter of safety on long-distance trips or city commutes that have the potential of causing bodily harm or even death to citizens as they go about the existential needs of their daily lives.

Expectedly, Christian clerics have raised their voices against the inclusion of preaching inside buses among the offences that this bill intends to stamp out. The General Secretary of the Christian Council of Nigeria, Rev. Evans Onyemara, has joined issues with the bill.

He argued, “While the objectives may be to reduce distractions, the inclusion of preaching alongside hawking and trading raises legitimate concerns about freedom of religion and expressions as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

Sub-Section 38(1) of the Nigerian Constitution that provides that “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to exchange his religion or belief, and freedom (either alone or in community with others, and in public or private) to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teachings, practice and observance,” appears to find preaching as an acceptable practice.

So is Sub-Section 38(3) insisting that “No religious community or denomination shall be prevented from providing instructions for pupils of that community or denomination in any place of education maintained wholly by that community or denomination.”

A good look at these provisions should have informed the proposers of the Bill and the Senate that it is unconstitutional to include such a clause in a Bill that the National Assembly is asked to consider. Constitutional lawyers may need to advise that the Senate should have even considered the Bill in the first place.

But this gaffe or omission only goes to show that those who make laws for Nigerians do not seem to even read, or consult, the Constitution as they prepare to make new laws. That is why they are proposing a Bill that contradicts the Constitution.

The 1999 Constitution is the grundnorm, the foundational law that gives validity and legitimacy to all laws, and upon which laws passed by the National Assembly and the President rest. The House of Representatives should please save itself, the Senate and the President the embarrassment of passing a law that cannot be obeyed.

This is not the first time that religion is being assaulted during this Fourth Republic. In 2016, former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el Rufai, got his pliable State House of Assembly to pass an anti-religious law that he said was to check religious extremism.

The law required preachers to obtain licences before they could preach in their churches or mosques. The law also prevented preaching between 11pm and 4am, which meant that there could be no night vigils. Mercifully, the law was terminated by the ruling of a Kaduna High Court in 2019.

There is something more far-reaching than the nuisance of citizens being prevented from practising Christianity, Islam or “Isese” acolytes; the erosion of the moral bulwark that religion or religious teachings inculcate in citizens.

If you want to know how a country without religion or any form of moral instructions runs, look no farther than the Western world, where almost anything goes in the name of self-expression; from queer definitions of sexuality, weird sense of self, gender or personhood, and confused sense of what is right or moral.

The Western world, led by America, has stretched the meaning of the Age of Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries, which rightly promoted disbelief in anything except that there was a well-founded scientific reason for accepting it.

It promoted the sense of self, individual liberty, natural rights, and the promotion of empirical inquiry before anything could be accepted as the “truth”. Its central theme about individual liberty, or individualism, replaced the supremacy of the king and placed sovereignty within the ranks of the citizens.

When it went further to introduce the concept of separation of the church and the state, it unwittingly put moral rectitude on a slippery slope in countries like America, where you often hear conscientious objectors ask that religion should not be taught or practised, at least, in their district schools.

If the Bill against preaching in buses is passed into law, it is anyone’s guess that the restraining roles that religion and ethics are playing in a Nigeria that is rapidly evolving into a modern country of mass and atomised individuals, who are already displaying the traits of people without scruples.

Anyone who thinks the submissions here are about the promotion of religions has gotten it completely wrong. The argument is that this bill may be setting Nigerian society up for the removal of guardrails that stand between Nigerians and the collapse of morality that is becoming manifest.

It is really not too simplistic to argue that cultism and ritual killings may further spike when the moral guardrails are finally removed.

X:@lekansote1, lekansote.com