HURIWA backs Oyedepo, CAN against Buhari’s controversial new law
By Seun Opejobi
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, on Saturday described the amended Company and Allied Matters Act 2020, CAMA, signed by President Muhammadu Buhari as satanic.
HURIWA said the amended CAMA Act was an affront on democracy and aimed at instilling dictatorship in Nigeria.
The rights advocacy group urged the “Federal government to immediately expunge toxic provisions in the amended CAMA Act 2020 which seeks to disempower Non-Governmental bodies and churches and silence independent voices and opinions.
The group says the move is a ”direct affront on constitutional democracy and a new form of dictatorship.”
A statement signed by the right group’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko says it is backing Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living Faith Church and the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, in their position on the CAMA Act.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on August 7, 2020, signed the amended CAMA Act into law.
Reacting, both Oyedepo and CAN had faulted the Act, described as satanic and ungodly legislation directed against the church.
However, HURIWA, in a statement, lamented that the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, which would ensure the enforcement of CAMA is controlled by “Hausa-Fulani.”
The statement reads partly: “A more recent obstacle to the enjoyment of fundamental freedoms and human rights as encapsulated in the Nigerian Constitution and international agreements that Nigeria signed into, which includes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the African Charter and People’s Rights is the amendments to the Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020, which forms the fulcrum of the statement.
“On August 7, 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari assented to the Company and Allied Matters Act, 2020 (CAMA 2020), which repeals and replaces the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 1990. The controversial section 839 (1) and (2) provides that religious bodies and non-governmental organisations will be strictly regulated by the Registrar-General of Corporate Affairs Commission and a supervising minister.
“The law also wields power to suspend the trustees of an association or a religious body and appoint an interim manager or managers to coordinate its affairs where it reasonably believes that there had been any misconduct or mismanagement, or where the affairs of the association are being run fraudulently or where it is necessary or desirable for the purpose of public interest.
“On the crest of the desire of the people, the bill that sought to bring the religious organisations and NGOs under the control and influence of the government was rejected because it would kill the church, but regrettably it is now smuggled into CAMA through the ambush and making the rejected bill a law.
“This is of utmost concern because the establishment of a church has a spiritual foundation and the invitation of a manager who obviously does not share the spiritual insight of the founders of the church would undermine the church, insidiously defeating its purpose. How can a secular and political minister be the final authority on the affairs and management of another institution which is not political?
“Again, we discovered that CAC which will control Churches and NGOs has always been controlled by Hausa Fulani Moslem Northerners since inception. Even when Mrs. Azinge acted briefly, President Buhari brought up kangaroo charges of non-declaration of assets to unseat her so as to make way for the candidate of the Moslems, controlled from the Sultanate in Sokoto. How then can a non-Christian head of government ministry be empowered to determine the running of the church as envisaged by the CAMA 2020?
