Nigerian pastor, Dr. James Akanbi, has asked fellow Church leaders to unite against the new corporate statute, Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA).

Last weekend, the General Overseer of God’s Mercy Revival Ministries (GOMERM) urged General Superintendent, Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM), Pastor Williams Kumuyi and General Overseer, Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye to unite against the CAMA.

Akanbi, a pentecostal revivalist in Lagos State, observed that the legislation, which President Muhammadu Buhari signed recently, “is no doubt a gang up from the pit of hell against the Church of Christ in Nigeria.”

He expressed this concern at a news conference he addressed in Lagos on Friday on the shortcoming of the legislation, saying CAMA was a confirmation of the suspicion that the Buhari presidency was looking for every means to cow the church.

On this ground, Akanbi tasked fathers of faith across the country “to stand up, seek an appointment with the president immediately and go to his office to express their objections and opposition to the law.”

He added further :

“There is a gang up of hell against the church of Christ in Nigeria. Pastor William F. Kumuyi, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, Bishop David Oyedepo, Dr. Daniel Olukoya, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Foursquare Gospel Church, Methodist Church Nigeria and the Catholic Church must come together against the legislation.
“This is not a matter for CAN alone. This is not a matter for the Pentecostals alone now. It is a matter for both Pentecostals and the Orthodox churches.
“This is not the time for anyone to go and sit passively somewhere. All of them must come together, book an appointment with the president and go and drop their objections on his table”.

Explaining that financial probity and accountability, which the law seeks to achieve was not bad in itself, the cleric said the way the federal government went about the matter showed it had an ulterior motive.

He said the federal government “has been extremely insincere. That’s the honest truth. And it has gone a long way to establish the fact of the suspicion which the church has against the government which is that it has a hidden agenda against the church in Nigeria.”

He elucidated on this by saying:

“Ordinarily, the CAMA 2020 itself should not have been bad. Nobody is against transparency, or financial integrity, and the establishment of a kind of governance procedure that will see to full transparency on financial matters.
“Nobody is fighting that in any way or accessibility to the figures. Nobody is fighting the fact of looking at the figures and giving advice where necessary. That’s certainly not the problem.
“The main problem why the church is shouting out and which the church finds very offensive is the removal clause in Section 839 (1) and (2) of the law. Yes, there was some legal procedure put in the law before removal. But it is vague. And the fact stands that the church cannot trust the federal government in this regard.
“A kangaroo arrangement can still be made and removal is done with little or no recourse to the proper procedure. Why, for instance, would a sweeping authority be given to the supervising minister to remove? That shows something is very wrong.
“It appears that they are looking for a way to remove the heads, and for me, I will say they are really hunting for some individuals. There are lots of churches in Nigeria. They are looking for key leaders just to be able to cow the church of God,” he said.

Ever since the inception of the amended CAMA, a number of pastors have been vocal about the limitations the law poses to their church administration.

Though the government has defended, saying it is not targeted at churches. We would like to know your thoughts on this. Feel free to share your views!