Rev Ayokunle said the Senate must not be seen to be promoting ethnicity or religion. Rev Samson Ayokunle, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria has warned the Senate against the tendency to bring injunctions and practices of any of the religions into Nigeria’s constitution.
He said Nigeria is a secular state and its secularity must reflect in its constitution.
Ayokunle said this on Thursday, after the valedictory service held for him as the Visitor to Bowen University, Iwo; Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, Ogbomoso.
The CAN President said this following the alleged attempt by the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Constitution Review to introduce Sharia in different zones in the country.
He said, “The amendment to the constitution is the way forward if the right things are done. If the public hearing is not just being done to fulfill all righteousness, if there is sincerity and if the lawmakers are ready and willing to take the contributions of the people seriously, then it will be beneficial to the people.
“They must not be seen to be promoting ethnicity or religion in it. It should be done with sincerity and fairness to all. If Nigeria is a secular state, let the secularity be reflected in our constitution. We must do away with the dual-constitution that we are using now, where religious injunctions and practices are brought into the constitution.
“The question is: how many religious injunctions and practices are you going to bring into the legal document? When you bring one and you neglect the others, you are still putting the nation on heat because it will continue to generate crises.”
Similarly, Bishop Wale Oke, the President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria had advised the Senate to avoid any moves by some groups to introduce Sharia law to the South-West region through the ongoing constitution review.
In a statement issued by his Media Office on Thursday, May 28, Oke said Sharia law is alien to the culture of religious existence in the South-West, adding that the move was capable of adding to the numerous problems facing the country.
