FREEDOM OF THOUGHT, Conscience and RELIGION/BELIEF

Lots of Human Rights Charters and Constitutions of federations and states provide for the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion/belief. These laws tend to guarantee and protect this right as enshrined in them.

Thought in simple English is the act or process of thinking; deliberation, meditation, or reflection. It is also the power of reasoning, or of conceiving ideas; capacity for thinking; intellect; imagination. From the definition, it is clear that every living being has the capacity to think and thinking can only be done by such individual. No one thinks for another person.

Conscience is a person’s moral sense of right and wrong, viewed as acting as a guide to one’s behavior. It is the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one’s conduct or motives, impelling one toward right action. Again, from the definition, conscience is a personal thing; it guides each individual and one person’s conscience cannot speak to another person. religions, faiths and beliefs. Unfortunately, with all the legislative provisions across the continent, in many African states, individuals and groups are denied this basic human right. There is a widespread intolerance, persecution and discrimination on the basis of religion or beliefs.

Religion on the other hand is the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. It is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

Every human being is entitled to the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right includes freedom to think however he wants and believe in whatever he wants to believe in; freedom to change his religion or belief; and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance.

Article 8 of the African Charter on recognizes Human and People’s Rights the right of all individuals to freedom of conscience and this entails that every individual has the right to profess a religion or belief; they are at liberty to change their religion or belief; they are entitled to freedom to criticize any religion or belief and freedom to profess no religion or belief.

Africa as we know is a very religious society with individuals and groups across the continent practicing different

Using Nigeria as a case study, there has been several incidences of people who were murdered because they were said to have committed blasphemies. Their freedom of thought, conscience and religion was denied them at the cost of their lives and not much has been done to seek redress for such victims and to ensure that such incidences do not occur anymore. There have been cases of forced conversions and profession of religious faiths, forced identification with family, official or state religions, particularly Christianity and Islam which are the dominant religions.

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in section 38 provides for the freedom of thought, conscience and religion. In fact, the provision reads as follows:

“38. (1) Every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom (either alone or in community with others, and in public or in private) to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.

(2) No person attending any place of education shall be required to receive religious instruction or to take part in or attend any religious ceremony or observance if such instruction, ceremony or observance relates to a religion other than his own, or religion not approved by his parent or guardian.

(3) No religious community or denomination shall be prevented from providing religious instruction for pupils of that community or denomination in any place of education maintained wholly by that community or denomination.

(4) Nothing in this section shall entitle any person to form, take part in the activity or be a member of a secret society.”

Sadly, even with the provisions, the social and political pressure on individuals to be religious and to remain religious or to profess a particular faith is too high in Nigeria and Africa at large. Other parts of the world have a higher success in exercising this right. There are either weak or non-existent mechanisms in most African countries to uphold and defend freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; and to protect individuals who change their religion or who criticize religions or renounce their religious beliefs or their belief in God or Allah.

Many individuals in the African continent, who have changed their religions, renounced their faiths or religious beliefs and criticized religions have done so in secret for fear of losing their lives or being discriminated against. Yes, it gets as bad as people being killed because they changed their religion.

Africa has many countries that have high or very high restrictions on religious freedom. From some research conducted by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), countries in North Africa have the highest government and social restrictions on religions, while in other countries like Nigeria, Egypt, Sudan, Morocco, Algeria and Eritrea, religious minorities are targets of restrictions from government actions, policies and laws.

Freedom of thought, conscience and religion is the bedrock of many other fundamental rights such as right to freedom of expression and the press, right to freedom from discrimination, right to peaceful assembly and association, et al For any society to be termed as civilized, and for the evolution of a true and virile democracy, this right must not only be enshrined in the constitution of such society; there must be visible steps taken to protect this right. No society can claim to protect and promote human rights without guaranteeing the freedom of religion or beliefs of its entire people.

I therefore call upon African leaders, particularly, the Nigerian government to take steps to address the violation of this right in their countries.

· The government must eliminate every law or policy that restricts or discriminates against any religious group or persons.

· There should be sensitizations amongst the citizenry to eliminate all forms of intolerance and discrimination on the basis of religion or belief.

· There should be laws imposing heavy sanctions or punishments on any individual or group of persons, who discriminate, persecute, cause any form of harm, or instigate same, against other people because of their religious beliefs, change of same or the absence of it.

· No one religion should be favored above others Every citizen should be treated equal. The rule of law must be paramount.

Nigeria and Africa at large has to take the issue of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion seriously because the barbaric act of killing people or harming them both physically and psychologically simply because they have a diverse thought or belief is the worst kind of animalistic behavior.

For a society to grow and succeed, its citizens must learn to tolerate, understand and accommodate themselves even if they have diverse beliefs and thoughts. Besides, that is what makes us human; we can never all think alike or believe the same things. Refusing to accept other people’s diverse opinion and belief is equal to refusing to accept their humanity and that again, is an animalistic behavior or worse.