– CAN reacts to CAMA bill, Calls it an ungodly law
Christian Association of Nigerian (CAN) has reacted to the new proposed Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020 (CAMA) that was recently assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The religious organisation believe it is an act to suffocate church and rank the institution as a secular institution under secular control. CAN also described the move as unacceptable, ungodly, reprehensible and an ill-wind that blows no one any good.
It was gather that earlier this month, President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law, the Companies and Allied Matters Bill, 2020. The bill which has been passed by the National Assembly replaced the 1990 CAMA.
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In a general statement issued by Special Assistant to CAN President, Pastor Adebayo Oladeji, CAN recalled that during the first term of the president, there was a public hearing on the NGO Bill by the National Assembly, which was tagged, “Bill for an Act To Provide For The Establishment Of The Non-Governmental Organizations, NGOs, Regulatory Commission For The Supervision, Co-ordination And Monitoring of Non Governmental Organizations’’, in which CAN and many NGOs participated.
“At the public hearing, the bill seeking to bring religious organizations and non-governmental organizations under the influence of the government was rejected outright, saying that it would choke the church.”
“We thought it was all over until we heard of the CAMA that was assented to by the President, making the rejected bill a law.
“The satanic section of the controversial and ungodly law is Section 839 (1) and (2) which empowers the commission to suspend trustees of an association (in this case, the church) and appoint interim managers to manage the affairs of the association for some given reasons.
“While we are not against the government fighting corruption wherever it may be found, yet we completely reject the idea of bringing the church, which is technically grouped among the NGOs under control of the government.
“The church cannot be controlled by the government because of its spiritual responsibilities and obligations. This is why we are calling on the federal government to stop the implementation of the obnoxious and ungodly law until the religious institutions are exempted from it.
“We call on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently return the law to the National Assembly for immediate amendment. Nigeria should not be compared with any other nation when it comes to the relationship between religious institutions and the government. In Nigeria, people’s religions are tied to their humanity and, of course, their life.
“How can the government sack the trustee of a church which it contributed no dime to establish? How can a secular and political minister be the final authority on the affairs and management of another institution which is not political? ‘’For example, how can a non-Christian head of Government Ministry be the one to determine the running of the church? It is an invitation to trouble that the government does not have power to manage.”
He also warned that the new policy is only bound to cause more discords and destroy the Church; “If you cannot give us good amenities of life, we would not allow you to take away our liberty to worship our Maker.
“We call on all well meaning Nigerians to ask the Federal Government to suspend the law because we do not need it in this nation,” he concluded.
The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN has also spoken out as CAN reacts to CAMA bill by saying it would go to court to challenge the law.
