Following calls by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), asking President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend the implementation of the Companies and Al
Following calls by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), asking President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend the implementation of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020, the Presidency has doused speculations that the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 was targeted at churches, mosques and other religious bodies.
On August 7, President Muhammadu Buhari signed CAMA into law. The law stipulates that religious bodies and charity organisations will be regulated by the registrar-general of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and a minister. CAMA 2020 provides that the commission may by order, suspend the trustees of an association or a religious body and appoint an interim manager or managers to coordinate its affairs where it reasonably believes that there has been any misconduct or mismanagement, or where the affairs of the association are being run fraudulently or where it is necessary or desirable for the purpose of public interest.
Many religious leaders, particularly pastors, have kicked against the law saying it is a declaration of war on the church.
CAN made its position on the matter known in a letter signed by Samson Ayokunle, its president, and presented to the Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs and former National Assembly Presidential Liaison Officer, Senator Ita Enang, at a ceremony in Abuja on Tuesday. The Christian association said the Act did not receive input from affected stakeholders before it was passed.
“We consider the Act, as indeed, a complex of statecraft compendium, laden with issues that are grossly inimical to national interest, security (peace and stability), and overall wellbeing of the Nigerian-state,” CAN said.
However, Enang made the clarification during a brief ceremony held at the secretariat of the Christain Association of Nigeria in Abuja, where he received the position paper of CAN on behalf of the President Muhammadu Buhari. Enang said, “Misconceptions have enveloped this Act with deliberate misinformation and falsehood by persons who may not have fully and in-fact personally read and digested the provision of the Act. We consider it appropriate and responsible to appear before you and other fora to make these explanations.
“We want to declare as a fact, that the Act does not target churches or religious bodies as wrongly assumed. For an illustration of this, I present a tabular form of the provisions of the 1990 Act which came into force on January 2, 1990, which after more than 30 years of operation has now been repealed and replaced by CAMA 2020.
“Hereunder are the comparative provisions in the two enactments to show particularly that the 2020 Act assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari has not introduced any matter oppressive to the Christian Community or any religion nor any matter discriminatory against any class of persons in Nigeria.”
