RELIGIOUS leaders including the Roman Ambassador and Head of Catholic Church in Nigeria, the Most Revd Antonio Filipazzi have condemned the introduction of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020 in Nigeria, saying “nobody can impose any law on the church.”
President Muhammadu Buhari had on August 7 signed into law, the Companies and Allied Matters Bill, 2020. The bill which was passed by the National Assembly replaced the 1990 CAMA ACT. A cross-section of the religious leaders who spoke to Sunday Tribune particularly faulted a part of the Act that gives the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) the power to sack the boards of the corporation and other non-governmental organisations it declares as non-performing and takes them over.
The Nuncio, while answering questions from journalists at a press conference at the Pastoral Center, Ede, Osun State, organised as part of activities marking the Silver Jubilee of the Catholic Diocese of Osogbo, maintained that “the Church cannot be controlled by the government because it was founded by Christ Himself to provide spiritual functions for its people, but not a social or entrepreneurial organisation.”
The representative of the Pontiff, however, enjoined the Federal Government to retrace its steps and exempt the church from the new law. In a related development, the Nuncio also berated the insensitivity of the Federal Government to the spate of insecurity in Nigeria, especially killings in the Southern Kaduna and the menace of Boko Haram insurgency in the northern part of the country as well as kidnappings and herdsmen’s crisis in the South. “It is the responsibility of the government to provide adequate security for its citizenry.
Though killings in Southern Kaduna is worrisome, there are other areas of the country that are security threats to the people.”
Credit: Tribune