CAMA 2020 and administration of churches

In Nigerian Pidgin, there is an adage which says “trouble dey sleep, yanga wan wake am,” which basically means don’t go about looking for unnecessary trouble. This adage is apt in relation to new provisions regarding the administration of churches contained within the Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020.

The Act is causing major apprehension amongst Christians. Legal luminaries describe the sections of the Act which empower the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to suspend church trustees and appoint interim managers, as both poorly drafted and illegal, indicating sloppiness, illogicality and malice. Many stakeholders have vowed to challenge the law on the grounds that it is reprehensible and illegal for the CAC to be both the prosecutor and the judge.

Under the new law, they can replace church trustees “if they reasonably believe there has been mismanagement, misconduct or fraud to protect its property in the public interest”. First, it’s is the job of the police force to investigate mismanagement, misconduct and fraud; not the CAC. Secondly, it’s derisible that government officials with their record for inefficiency, incompetence and corruption are empowered to determine the public interest.

Quite ridiculously under CAMA 2020, a non-Christian may be appointed interim manager of a Church to replace Christian church members, and worse still, there is no tenure limit for the appointed “interim” management. Churches are voluntary associations which people join and leave of their own free will. Anyone who dislikes the manner in which his or her church is being run is free to leave. CAMA 2020 effectively empowers such disaffected members to petition government to replace the overseer or Board of Trustees with appointees who perhaps do not have the interests of the church at heart.

External appointed leaders who don’t know, understand or agree with these beliefs will only violate them and cause unnecessary trouble. As such, CAMA 2020 tramples on the internal rights of members of a voluntary association as contained in their governing instruments. Naturally the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) condemned the new legislation, calling it “unacceptable, ungodly, reprehensible and an ill wind that blows no one any good.” Apart from the reference to being “ungodly” it’s difficult to disagree with them.

The powers given to the Director-General of CAC or his supervising minister to replace the Board of Trustees of a church, dissolve the leadership and appoint any one of their choice to manage the church “in the public interest” without any provision that such appointees must be church members or at least Christians is a recipe for disaster. In effect, the law empowers CAC to appoint non-believers to preside over Christian affairs! Religious organisations should not be regulated by outsiders. Government contributes nothing to the growth of churches.

Even if church funds are misspent, it doesn’t concern them, especially since the money is given voluntarily. While it is desirable that churches are controlled to stop the chicanery, sheer brigandage, lawlessness, and lack of transparency some of them are engaged in, such control cannot be done by government. While it is true that the UK Charities Commission appointed interim managers for two Nigerian mega-churches - Christ Embassy and Mountain of Fire over issues relating to mismanagement and financial misconduct in the UK, Nigeria should not be compared to UK when it comes to the relationship between religion and government.

Recent revelations of massive corruption in government parastatals support the contention that the federal government which continuously proves itself incapable of preventing fraud in its own affairs, has no moral right to regulate the affairs of others. Unsurprisingly, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) describes CAMA 2020 as “a war against churches”. Indeed, religious houses are not secular and no secular organisation should be given the right to remove, suspend or appoint any of its officers.

To most Christians, government’s claim that the 604-page document is about “improving the ease of doing business” is a ruse to cover its real objective of curtailing Christianity. To be fair to government, there is a need to regulate the affairs of some pastors who have brought the church into disrepute by acting like witch-doctors, magicians or showbusiness superstars, dancing like performing artistes, or treating their congregations to WWF (World Wrestling Federation) playacting. Mega pastors immunise themselves from probity and accountability by pretending to be divine. In the old days, men of God were known to live modest lives of prayer and self-denial, hence the expression “poor as a church rat”.

Today’s mega pastors do little to hide the fact that they are billionaires. They flaunt wealth, ride expensive cars, fly in private jets, and live in vulgarly ostentatious mansions while their congregational members suffer deprivations. They argue that churches have spiritual foundations and it is only courting trouble to empower any agency to appoint people who don’t share that same spiritual insight to oversee their affairs. This is fallacious because most pentecostal churches are oneman businesses where when the founder dies, his wife or son takes over. Undeniably, the motives behind the CAMA 2020 amendments are suspect. In 2017, there was a public hearing in which the concept of public control over religious institutions was roundly rejected.

Despite this, the president has brought back this rejected concept through the backdoor. It’s all about authority and control; not accountability. If the motives behind this legislation were genuine, then all that was required was to establish a law under which CAN would have the legal authority to regulate itself in the same manner as the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). CAMA 2020 contains no provisions for increased reporting or mandatory disclosure, and doesn’t in any way increase transparency churches or NGO operations. Agent provocateurs are busy convincing Christians that it’s all just another step in a purported attempt to curtail their religion, yet the federal government has made no attempt to allay the fears being created. It’s also totally unnecessary and likely to cause more harm than good. Nigerians are extremely sensitive to religious issues which tend to divide us rather than unite us. Regardless of their purported good intentions, the nation would be better served if rather than courting rouble by interfering into religious matters which really don’t concern it, government concentrated on housing, healthcare, education, security, infrastructure and the unhygienic environment.