Prohibition of preaching in buses: Bishop Oke doubles down
The National President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, Bishop Wale Oke, has reaffirmed the resolve of Christians to defy any law prohibiting preaching in commercial buses.
Speaking as a follow-up to his sermon last Sunday where he slammed the Senate for proposing a law to ban preaching in commercial buses, Bishop Oke decried what he described as a systemic push by the Nigerian political class against Christians.
He questioned how a bill could be drafted by the Senate, passed without a public hearing to get citizens’ input, and then forwarded to the President for assent. The Senate has said the law is not new but that sections in the original version were merely rearranged.
Bishop Oke, who spoke on Channels TV’s Morning Show today, urged the Senate to make laws that will strengthen Nigeria’s secularity, not ones that will promote division.
“The Constitution of the country guarantees freedom of speech and religion… Our Master commands us to preach the gospel everywhere. Anyone who is a Christian today became one because he heard the gospel, believed it and accepted Christ,” he said.
He lamented that Christians in Nigeria are facing an existential threat from Islamic extremists who are killing Christians in Taraba, Southern Kaduna, Benue and Plateau States, and are now pushing into Edo, Oyo and Kwara States.
The Christian leader also condemned what he called the unlawful enlistment of Nigeria as a member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and asked the National Assembly to review it.
He further criticized the undue emphasis given to Islam in the 1999 Constitution, arguing that while Islam and related matters are mentioned more than 100 times, Christianity is not mentioned at all despite its numerical strength.
Last Sunday, while preaching in his church, Bishop Oke had slammed the Senate for not going after illegal gun users and kidnappers, but instead targeting “we who preach the gospel of peace,” vowing that Christians will preach in buses and everywhere else.
“Make all the stadiums in Nigeria become prisons, if you want to enforce that law; we are coming. We will break that law. Our Master told us to go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature. You sit somewhere there, and you are saying we shouldn’t preach in buses. We will preach in buses! We will preach everywhere! Because you are making evil decrees. We will rather obey God than man,” he had said.
