After the recent release of the Companies and Allied Matters Act that was just signed into law by the presidency. Religious leaders and bodies have come out to express their grievances with the new bill that has just been passed. Claiming it was aimed at stifling the growth and development of churches in Nigeria. Which prompted the president of CAN Samson Ayokunle, to write an open letter to the presidency to suspend the act.
In a letter signed by CAN President, Samson Ayokunle, the association said it was yet to be availed with the authentic version of the voluminous Act, made up of 870 sections besides the sundry and complex schedules and addendum.
As a result of the allegations thrown by CAN & religious bodies at the presidency, several official explanations have been released to state that the law does not target the church, forcing social critics to conclude that church leaders’ opposition might have been fueled by their reluctance to accountability, which the law demands of every non-governmental organisation registered under the Act.
Senator Enag also made a statement saying, that some politicians, especially those from the opposition, had attempted to paint the CAMA as an anti-religious law geared towards enslaving the church
Vanguard reports that thePresidency on Tuesday, finally reacted to insinuations by some Christian leaders about the Companies and Allied Matters Act recently signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhar he debunks their claims as false and untenable.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Ita Enang, who made the government position known at an interactive session with the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Abuja on Tuesday, described insinuations that CAMA 2020 was against the church and other religious bodies as mischievous and an attempt by the opposition to blackmail the President for political motive.
The meeting, which was organised principally to educate the Christian body over the contentious provisions of the CAMA, saw the Presidential aide swearing an oath to assure the church that had spoken nothing but the whole truth about the new law and pleaded with the government on the new law.
He said the misconceptions that trailed the Act had found their way in through deliberate misinformation, explaining they were spun to blackmail President Muhmmadu Buhari.
The President, he said, didn’t originate the law and at previous occasions withheld accent when he was not convinced it was good enough for Nigeria.
“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, 2nd 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.”
The President of the CAN, Reverend Samson Ayokunle, pleaded with the president to carry out a further appraisal of the legislation in accordance with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended).