Femi Falana condemns new CAMA Act
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has taken a dig at the revised Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), which lodges power to the supervising minister to remove the board of trustees of churches without authorization from the court.
Falana made aired his view on a thread on Friends of TheNEWS WhatsApp platform.
He said: “I have read the law. It was badly drafted. A government that set out to facilitate the ease of doing business could not have come up with a 604-page business law (CAMA 2020).”
He added: “But it is not a completely new law. Registered NGOs were regulated in the past in line with the practice in all democratic societies. The only addition which is objectionable is the power conferred on the commission to take over and manage NGOs on allegations of misconduct. It is illegal because it is a violation of the fundamental right to freedom of association guaranteed by section 40 of the Constitution.”
Also, a veteran journalist, Lade Bonuola, forwarded, a contribution from another platform to enrich the thread:
“If you guys know the amount of things hidden in that 604 pages of the new Companies Act, you’ll start weeping. The Corporate Affairs Commisson has just been made a monster. You see that NIPOST regulation fixing N20m as licensing fee? That is small stuff compared to what CAC will do.
Voluntary organizations are the worst hit by the revised Act (churches, mosques, charity organizations, schools, NGOs) etc. The Corporate Affairs Commission can now arbitrarily remove and replace the “owners” or leaders of these organizations. Also, the CAC can take over the monies in their bank accounts.
READ ALSO: Senate passes CAMA amendment bill into law
Online vendors who operate under a business name other than their government names now risk conviction in court if they don’t register their business names with CAC.
Another worrying introduction to the Act is a private organization which has been written into the new Companies Act and backhandedly empowered to:
1. generate revenue; and
2. regulate an aspect of law practice, accountancy etc.
The Act has also received further criticism with regard to the power being granted to the CAC vis-a-vis penalties against businesses, which in effect implies that, sequel to S. 851 of the Act, the CAC can now act as a ‘court’ or tribunal of some sort. So if CAC imposes fees on your small business, before you can go to court to challenge those fees, you must first appear before CAC panel & make your case.
