By: Tochi Onyeubi
Civil society group under the umbrella of Action Group on Free Civic Space, has voiced out their displeasure over the recent Companies and Allied Matters act, CAMA 2020.
They maintained that the provisions of the new law, which was last amended in 1990 held enormous potential to restrict the civic space and limit constitutionally protected freedom.
The group, a loose network of over 85 organization including student unions social movement and active citizens across Nigeria working on different thematic issues to ensure that the civic space in Nigeria is not gagged, stress that the new law contained duplicity of roles and has the potential to create excessively, complicated administrative procedures for law enforcement.
The convener, Ogechi Ikeh, Executive Director CCIDESOR member of Action Group Free Civic Space speaking in Owerri, during a press briefing with media men and other civil society groups, listed some observations arising from the law reviewed by Victoria Ibezim Ohaeri, VIO.
She stated that, the CAMA 2020 law established a new form of eminent domain which appears to be fixated on governmental powers to remove and suspend trustees, thereby taking over association’s administrative and management property including bank credits.
She further stated that, the law is punitive and confers excessive power on then government to overtly restrict or interfere with Non Profit Organisation.
Others she listed were, the fear of the law disrupting and displacing expressed intentions aspirations of an organization’s constitution, contradicting the Nigeria constitution which gave right to freedom of association and also the duplication of the roles between the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering, SCUML and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Participants stressed that compliance to the new law will not only be onerous, but will be time consuming and ineffective.
They however called on the government to review the provisions contained in the law, to avoid impeding on fundamental human rights as enshrined in the Nigeria constitution.
As a way forward, they charged religious bodies to unite and live up to expectation while discharging their duties, as they called on all coalition of Non Profit Organizations to collaborate and hold strategic advocacy visits to relevant stakeholders sensitizing them and also raise awareness to the citizens on the positive sides of CAMA as a their civic responsibilities to the government while tackling the negative law as unacceptable.
