BISHOP Emmanuel Badejo of the Catholic Diocese of Oyo has urged lawmakers at all levels of government to sponsor family-oriented bills.

Badejo made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Ibadan.

The cleric said that bills under the guise of fighting harassment and denial of rights of women were constantly making rounds in the National Assembly.

“It is unfortunate that with bills that come under innocuous and harmless titles like the empowerment of women and gender balance, we are experiencing the imposition of ideology that seeks to demean human life.

“You know people don’t read;   they read just the title and the conclusion, and you think it must be a good bill, but the dangerous elements are deep inside.

“Unfortunately, these bills keep coming up, they keep being defeated and they keep coming up.

” Because we want to reduce maternal mortality rate, then we have to flood the lives of our young people with contraceptives that harm them, they mix the good with the bad and the ugly;  we need to separate the grain from the chaff,” he said.

According to him, family values are compromised as a result of such bills.

Badejo urged legislators to rather sponsor bills that would provide basic facilities as well as infrastructure and economic empowerment that  would be of greater benefits to women in the society.

“The church craves an end to harassment and denial of women rights.

“Every person of goodwill wants the elimination of physical or sexual abuse against women and wants to see an end to casualties during pregnancy or at childbirth.

“There are many benefits that will come from promoting family-oriented laws rather than encouraging abortion in the name of women empowerment.

“The position of the church is that any bill that demeans human life, that permits the killing one human being to make another comfortable is sinful and criminal,” he said. (NAN)

– Mar. 16, 2018 @ 14:28 GMT |