As the controversy over certain sections of the newly accented Company and Allied Matters Act, popularly known as CAMA by Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari rages on, it will be important that members of the Church, and most importantly the leaders of the Church irrespective of factions to sit and study the Act and ensure that necessary steps are taken to avoid been the first religious organisation to be sanctioned by the the custodian of the Act, the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC.






According to the new law, ”Section 839 (1) empowers the Commission to suspend trustees of an association and appoint interim managers to manage the affairs of the association where it reasonably believes that-

(a) There is or has been misconduct, mismanagement in the administration of the association.”

”(b) it is necessary or desirable for the purpose of;

i. Protecting the property of the association.

ii. Securing a proper application for the property of the association towards achieving the objects of the association, the purpose of the association of that property or of the property coming to the association,

iii. Public interest; or

(c) the affairs of the association are being run fraudulently.”

Subsection 2 provides as follows:

“1. The trustees shall be suspended by an order of Court upon the petition of the Commission or Members consisting of one-fifth of the association, and the petitioners shall present all reasonable evidence or such evidence as requested by the Court in respect of the petition.”






While some Christians have called the sections 839 (1) & (2) of the law demonic and an avenue to take over Churches, the Registrar-General of CAC, Garba Abubakar has urged religious bodies and other non-governmental organisations to stop describing the new Act as evil, but to see it as an avenue for proper financial and leadership accountability to take place in registered associations.

Therefore, the following are the reasons, Celestial Church might be the first religious organisation to suffer from stings of the disputed section 839 (1) & (2).

1. The go to hell attitude of Ketu

Those who are sincerely conversant with the attempt to unify the Church often blame Ketu as the major problem when it comes to unifying the Church. This is due to the fact that Ketu knows that it has the highest number of members in the Church than other factions in Nigeria and has in it possession all the Church’s major landmarks in the country, thus thinking it does not need to negotiate with any faction in unifying the Church. This is the advantage Ketu has and that is why those administering the affairs of Ketu thinks they should always stay on the position of the strength when negotiating the unity of the Church.

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Let it be known that this “go to hell attitude” is indeed dangerous and can be used against the trustees of Ketu, as Doctor Charles Omole warned when he and Pastor Oyemade of the Covenant Christian Centre discussed about the CAMA Act 2020 on webinar in zoom. He warned that a church which is not united, will be easy to be knocked out by the new CAMA Act.






2. Lack of proper accountability

The payment of returns to the headquarters of various factions is faulted with so many flaws and many always looking away, but with the implementation of the Act, this is one area which aggrieved members or the CAC may not look away from. The amount which get to the headquarters are often not the true representation of what they should be as the channel of remitting these returns are not of best financial practices.

Also, as the CAC will be looking at the financial accountability of most incorporated trustees, without any doubt, the secrecy and lot of hidden information about the Church’s finances need to be corrected as the CAC will definitely not be pleased with this.

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3. Lack of proper dispute resolution

The resolution of disputes in the Church do take the dimension of one side becoming the ‘winner’ and another becoming the ‘loser’, rather than a ‘no victor, no vanquish' form of dispute resolution. Dispute in parishes are often settled with the ‘vanquish’ not been appeased and if this continues, the hammer from the CAC is near.

4. Multiple claimants of the pastoral seat

As Celestians do pray and look forward for Christ to cleanse his Church, it is worthy to note as acknowledged by Doctor Charles Omole that the cleansing of the Church may not necessarily come in a spiritual form, but through the laws made by governments.

The number of claimants to the pastoral seat, may count for or against the Church, as any intense political maneuvering can change the dynamics of who get to be the pastor recognized by the government.

The Church should focus on these areas and ensure that the stings of CAC do not comes upon the Church, so we do not begin to blame the government as the problem of the Church. This is the best time for a united Celestial Church.


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By Anjuwon Oluwole




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