The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has made it clear that churches must get ready to start obeying the new Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) which has come to stay in the country despite the public outcry that has greeted it.
The Commission said that it is only waiting for the legislature to gazette it for immediate implementation of the law.
The CAC Registrar General, Alhaji Garba Abubakar, who spoke to newsmen today, August 22 in Abuja, wondered why the act is being opposed by religious bodies, especially the churches.
“They must henceforth subject their finances and expenditures for proper auditing, and copies sent to us at the CAC.
“The new legal framework applies to all organizations registered with us; be it a religious organisation, NGO or CSO.
“Remember that they also have constitutions guiding them. The criteria to be a trustee of registered organisations are clearly spelt out in the laws establishing them.
“How is it that a registered member who qualifies to be a trustee in an organisation would not want government to know how the organisation is run? What are the responsibilities of the trustees?
“What are the responsibilities of the governing council or the board?
“How do you manage the affairs of the organisation?
“How do you use or expend the income and properties of the organisation? How do you appoint members of the governing board? “These are the issues the new CAMA has come to address.”
The CAMA bill was recently signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, and was included in his list of achievements for the last one year.
Recall that the Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN), had recently described CAMA as satanic, demanding that the President halts the implementation of “the obnoxious and ungodly law until religious institutions are exempted from it.”
