Fred Ezeh, Abuja
In a bid to buy the support and reassure religious bodies that the recently signed Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020, (CAMA) was not targeted at them, Federal Government official, on Tuesday, swear to an oath to justify its claims that the law was never designed to oppress the church or any other religious institutions in Nigeria.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Ita Enang, took the oath on behalf of the Federal Government at an interactive meeting with the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), in Abuja.
Senator Enang explained that the purpose of the meeting was to give further insight into the CAMA and neutralize the efforts of some opposition groups in Nigeria to incite the religious bodies against the government using the CAMA law as an excuse.
He explained: “Unnecessary misconceptions have enveloped this CAMA law with deliberate misinformation and falsehood being championed by some persons who may not have fully and in-fact personally read and digested the provision of the ACT. So, I consider it appropriate and responsible to appear before you and other fora to make these explanations.
“First, the bill as it then was, was not an executive bill transmitted by President Buhari to the legislature. It was initiated by a Senator and member of the House of Representatives (names withheld) in the respective chambers at the behest of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and support of the Ministry of Trade and Investment. It was therefore not an executive bill, but upon passage was transmitted to Mr. President for assent.
“Secondly, upon receipt of same for assent, Mr. President in accordance with extant best practices escalated the measures to appropriate Ministries, Departments and Agencies who made different inputs some of which led to Mr. President declining assent twice to the bill in the entire tenure or life of the 8th Assembly.
“Thirdly, as the 9th Assembly was inaugurated, the bill was re-introduced with all the observations made on the 8th Assembly bill incorporated and addressed, without any amendment or insertion, and in whole passed by the two chambers and being without differences, was transmitted to Mr. President for assent.”
To further justify his claims, he presented a tabular form of the provisions of the 1990 CAMA ACT which came into force on January, 2nd 1990, which after more than 30 years of operation has now been repealed and replaced by CAMA 2020.
Senator Enang also presented a comparative provision in the two enactments to convince the people that the 2020 ACT assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari, has not introduced any oppressive item to the Christian Community, any religion nor any matter discriminatory against any class of persons in Nigeria.
He, thus appealed to CAN and other religious bodies to support the Federal Government in its quest to strengthen the governance system in Nigeria to enable it function well and deliver quality services to Nigerians.