By Bode Olagoke
The ongoing National Conference yesterday finally agreed on one of its contentious recommendations that Pilgrims Welfare Board be phased out gradually.
They also agreed on the establishment of a specialised body empowered with the appropriate mechanisms to check the abuse of religion and promote the religious rights of all Nigerians.
This particular recommendation by the Conference committee on religion has divided the conference along religious and regional lines when it was first presented.
The conference vice chairman, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, told the plenary that after interventions and submission endorsed by 350 delegates, it has become imperative to reconsider most of the proposals put up in the report by the Bishop Felix Ajakaiye and Nurudeen Lemu co-chair committee.
Akinyemi hinted that it is commendable to adopt the report the way it is with slight amendments: “I must commend those who sat down to come to this position without rancour on a matter that is as serious as this,” he said.
Earlier the presiding chair had called on Lemu to throw more light on some of the most contentious issues that informed the committee report being “bracketed” in the first place.
Lemu said the incessant ethno-religious crises in Nigeria, though not caused sorely by religion, is exploited in the course of the crisis and “end up contributing to fueling it beyond control,” and the need to forestall this abuse or exploitation has given the impetus to the idea of establishing “a body whose sole responsibility will be the detection of those initial warning signals that could be exploited for instigating religious acrimony and violence among various religious groups in Nigeria.”
The committee insisted that because Nigeria is a multi-ethnic society, there is the need for a body to serve as an umbrella body to serve all tendencies, ranging from investigation and enforcement of rights to prosecution of offences committed in the name of religion and religious discrimination and victimization. This is because some of the existing inter-religious bodies are either merely advisory without a legal backing or have not adequately addressed the abuse of religion related violations.
The recommendation of the committee reads “over the years, religion has been employed by mischief-seeking individuals and groups to create tension and provoke crisis amongst Nigerians.
“This underscores the need for a specialized legal/institutional mechanism in form of the Religious Equity Commission (RECOM) to check the abuse of religion and promote the religious rights of all persons in Nigeria as guaranteed by the constitution.”
