CAMA 2020 Not Targeted At Churches, Mosques, Says FG

The Federal Government has assured that the Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) signed by President Muhammadu Buhari in August was not designed to oppress any religious group in the country.

Senator Ita Enang, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, gave the assurances on Tuesday during an interaction with the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Abuja.

The meeting, which was organised for enlightenment of the Christian body over the contentious provisions of the Act, also saw the Presidential aide swearing to an oath to assure the church he had come to them with the whole truth about the new law.

Senator Enang lamented that some politicians, especially those from the opposition, had wrongly characterised the intents and purposes of the Act, giving it an anti-religious law.

He added that the President didn’t originate the law and at previous occasions withheld assent 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,” said the Presidential aide.

“For 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of the 1990 ACT which came into force on January, 2nd 1990, which after more than 30 years of operation has now been repealed and replaced by CAMA 2020 hereunder are the comparative provisions in the two enactments to show particularly that the 2020 ACT assented to by President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.”