Over the weekend, a viral tweet with the claim that moves to regulate preaching by Christians, began making the rounds on social media.
The Tweet which has over 700,000 interactions reads, “Nigerian Senate moves to regulate Christian preaching as bill scales second reading.”
Claim: Bill to regulate Christian preaching passed second reading at the Nigerian Senate
Verification
The CDD Election War Room checked the claim to verify its authenticity.
We found that the Nigerian Senate in the past week passed for second reading a bill seeking to establish an institution known as the ‘National Centre for Christian Education’.
Binos Yaroe, a senator representing Adamawa South on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), sponsored the bill, which was supported by another PDP senator, Istifanus Gyang, representing Plateau North.
Both Yaroe and Gyang are northern Christians, while the former is an ordained pastor at the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria.
The bill seeks to “regulate and set standards” acceptable to the practice of Christianity in the country. The institution, when set up according to Yaroe, would develop a curriculum for Christian education.
In 2016, Gyang also sponsored a bill seeking to create an appeal court to try cases pertaining to the Christian faith. The bill was passed for second reading at the House of Representatives.
Verdict: MISLEADING
The Twitter post claiming that a bill to regulate Christian preaching has scaled second reading is misleading. The bill put forward to the Senate was to establish a National Centre for Christian Education, and not to regulate Christain preaching.