Proposed National Council of Christian Education Bill Retroactive, Anglican Church Says
Segun Awofadeji in Gombe
As controversy continues to trail the proposed law on the National Council of Christian Education, the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) has described it as retroactive and called for its withdrawal.
The church stated it reviewed the bill seeking to regulate and monitor the implementation and development of Christian Education in Nigeria.
According to a statement signed by Henry C. Ndukuba, the Archbishop of the Metropolitan and Primate of the Church of Nigeria, said, “By its title, the bill purports to introduce mandatory certification of the contents of Christian Religious Education, including Christian education syllabuses and curricula.”
The statement added, “It also seeks to approve and monitor how Christian Religious Education is taught in all schools and to accredit the programmes of Christian theological institutions and seminaries, and certify Christian religion education instructors.”
The primate stressed that the church considered the bill “retroactive and that existing church-owned seminaries and religious faith-based institutions are not exempted.”
“The Church of Nigeria rejects the bill for being inconsistent with the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution by seeking to interfere with its entrenched constitutional rights of freedom of religion,” stated the Anglican Church.
Ndukuba added that “the establishment of curricula, the duration and content of training courses in respect of Christian education at any level, is recognised as being entirely within the prerogative of religious freedom guaranteed by the constitution.”
The statement insisted that “registered Christian churches such as the Church of Nigeria with long established and globally recognised training institutions and products must maintain the right to adhere to their own training methods and content and cannot have same curtailed,” recommending a “consultative forum to discuss the issues of concern
relating to the regulation of standards pertaining to Christian education, without interference with the freedom to teach and to learn in accordance with long-established educational curricula of well-established churches.”
