By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
The CAMA 2020 signed into law by President Muhhammadu Buhari on August 7, continues to attract comments from various individuals and groups.
The new CAMA introduces a new eminent domain giving the government the power to remove the trustees of an association.
In a virtual meeting organised by a Lagos based human rights and Advocacy organisation on September 23, 2020, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), the former National Human Rights Commission chairman, Prof Chidi Odinkalu, while contributing to the meeting via his twitter handle said:
“CAMA2020 is an inorganic piece of legislation that is liable to be abused and will be abused.
“The drafting of this CAMA2020 law is unruly, it has no safeguard to prevent abuse of power and it will definitely be abused.”
Also speaking through his twitter handle, a human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, said that the drafters of the law did not take into consideration key provisions of the constitution.
“It is unconstitutional to give power to the CAC to appoint trustees to manage Associations. This is premised on the fact that before an Association is registered, such Association will tender its constitution which will be used to govern the Association” Falana said
He posited that before the CAC can decide to suspend trustees, they must file an application before the courts showing why that has to happen, adding that there must be an an opportunity for such board to present a defense.
“Giving power to the CAC to manage the affairs of an Association will be unconstitutional and a violation of rights.The Registrar General has no power to put aside the constitution of an Association.
“I am not against the monitoring of Associations but if they must be monitored, it must be in accordance with the constitution” he further said