By Williams Anuku Abuja
Contrary to insinuations that the recently assented Companies and Allied Matters Act CAMA, by President Muhammadu Buhari was a deliberate ploy to stiffle religious institutions in Nigeria, the Presidency has said it was far from the truth.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Ita Enang, gave the assurances on Tuesday during an interaction with the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), in Abuja, insisting that it does not target churches, mosques and other religious bodies, as had been wrongly portrayed.
The meeting, which was organised for the purposes of giving enlightenment to the Christian body over the contentious provisions of the CAMA, also saw the Presidential aid swearing to an oath to assure the church in Nigeria that he had come to them with the whole truth about the new law.
Lamenting 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 said the misconceptions that had trailed the Act had found their way in through deliberate misinformation, explaining also that though some had intended to blackmail President Muhmmadu Buhari with it, he was not the sponsor and had at previous occasions withheld accent to it when he was not convinced it was good enough for Nigeria.
“Misconceptions have enveloped this ACT with deliberate misinformation and falsehood by persons who may not have fully and in-fact personally read and digested the provision of the ACT. We 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 but initiated by a Senator and member of the House in the respective chambers, at the behest of the Corporate Affairs Commission 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.
