April 14, 2012  by OLALEKAN ADETAYO

OLALEKAN ADETAYO writes that despite the laboured attempts to downplay President Goodluck Jonathan’s in the church donation saga, the President may still be having sleepless nights

God loves a cheerful giver. Givers never lack. Givers’ hands are always on top. These are a few among the numerous expressions commonly used in churches. They are used by pastors to encourage worshippers to commit their resources into ‘God’s project’ by donating generously to the church. These expressions are also written on stickers to continue to serve as a reminder to would-be donors.

With these expressions at the back of their minds, some individuals, societies and corporate bodies fall upon themselves to donate to churches, believing that they will reap the fruits of their ‘bold step of faith’ here on earth or in the hereafter. One sure way of doing this, they believe, is by donating or initiating the donation of gifts to churches.

President Goodluck Jonathan is a Christian and he must have listened to such sermons that encourage generous donation towards God’s work. On March 17, 2012, he was in his country home for the twin function of the dedication of a parish of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), St. Stephen’s Anglican Church, Otuoke, and the ground-breaking ceremony of the church’s other projects comprising nursery, primary, secondary and university, library/bookshop, a clinic among other facilities.

The target of the church authorities is that the project will be completed before May 2015. Apparently in his bid to encourage those who were at the event to donate generously to the project in order to meet the deadline, the President was reported by a national newspaper (not SATURDAY PUNCH) to have said that the church building was donated to his community by Gitto Construzioni Generali Nigeria Ltd. following his (the President’s) complaint that the old church building was unbefitting of a president’s village.

The President may have thought that such a public declaration of the firm’s “good gesture” would encourage representatives of other firms present at the event to take a leaf out of the book of the donor firm’s management. He may also have thought that he would be given a pat in the back for influencing such a donation in a community, where some years back, he was walking barefooted to school.

Events that followed have, however, showed that the President got more than he bargained for in the matter. No sooner had his statement been reported in the media than civil rights groups, lawyers and opposition political parties started descending on him as if they were already waiting in the flanks for him.

The mass media was full of criticism for the President, who they accused of soliciting and obtaining ‘bribe’ in form of a church gift. In fact, a group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to probe the donation of the church building. The Executive Director of SERAP, Mr. Adetokunbo Mumuni, in a petition to the chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, said the President confirmed during the dedication of the church building that it was donated to him by the Italian construction firm. The donation, according to SERAP, violates Section 6 of the Code of Conduct for public officers embodied in the First Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, the Code of Conduct and Tribunal Act (CAP C15) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

A lawyer, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), said it was morally wrong for the President to accept the building as a donation. He said the donation had the propensity to compromise Jonathan and constitute a blow to transparency and anti-corruption fight of the government. His colleague, Mr. Femi Falana, said it was illegal under the constitution and the Code of Conduct for any public officer to collect gifts. He said the President’s offence was an impeachable one.

Apparently taking a cue from Falana’s argument, the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria later issued a statement in which it called on members of the National Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against the President for admitting openly that he solicited “a bribe” in violation of the constitution that he swore to uphold.

While the public outcry was on, the President’s handlers initially maintained their calm, thinking events would soon overtake it and Nigerians would move forward. But surprisingly, not even the security challenges being witnessed in some parts of the country could displace the public bashing from the media. When it became obvious that opposition parties were feeding fat on the development, the Presidency later broke its silence.

In a strongly-worded statement, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, described the criticism that followed the donation as “patently a laughable attempt by political opponents of the President and their collaborators to brew up a storm in a cup over the alleged ‘gift’ of a church to the President.” Abati said it should be clear to all knowledgeable and discerning Nigerians that the allegations were nothing other than another mischievous attempt to denigrate Jonathan, cast unjustifiable aspersions on his personal integrity and distract him from the serious business of governance.

The statement read in part, “For the benefit of the unwary who might be taken in by the antics of an unscrupulous opposition that has little or no regard for the truth in the pursuit of their self-serving agenda, the Presidency wishes to state emphatically that President Jonathan never solicited or received a church as ‘bribe’ from any contractor.”

Abati said there were innumerable precedents of such gesture in the country, explaining that even the famous Millennium Park in Abuja was donated to the city by a construction company. If Abati thought that statement would stop opposition parties and end the outcry, he was far from being right as the statement only succeeded in attracting more comments, especially from the ACN. The party slammed the Peoples Democratic Party and the Presidency for resorting to “name calling,” in their separate reactions to its call on the National Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against the President.

The party said the Presidency and the PDP had frittered away an opportunity to explain what happened. “For the avoidance of doubt, there was nothing exculpatory in the pedestrian statements issued by the PDP and the Presidency. Instead of     employing facts – if they have any – to explain to Nigerians what they felt transpired, they resorted to name calling and endless rambling,” the party observed. The ACN said since there was no denial in the statement, it would renew its call for the impeachment of the President. So far, since the Presidency’s explanation, the ACN had issued two separate statements on the issue.

A school of thought, however, believes that the President ought to be spared the bashing since the church is not his personal property and more importantly since the management of the Italian firm had declared publicly that the church was renovated purely as part of its corporate social responsibility to a community in the state where it has benefitted a lot in terms of contracts.

Students of that school of thought are quick to point to the fact that this is not the first time that top public office holders in Nigeria will use their position to attract benefits to themselves. They are quick to point to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, who gathered well-to-do Nigerians to contribute to the building of the Obasanjo Presidential Library even while he was a sitting president. They also refer to Hajia Turai Yar’Adua, widow of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, who generated N10bn for her pet project, the International Cancer Centre among other examples.

Whichever way one looks at it, the criticism still following this church gift is no doubt giving the President and his handlers sleepless nights to the extent that he could be regretting initiating the gift or declaring his involvement openly. The church building may, therefore, be an insomnia-inducing gift for Mr. President!

-Punch

Posted by admin on Apr 14 2012. Filed under Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), Headlines, Presidency. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry