Reeling from allegations that he solicited and obtained a church ‘gift’ from a foreign construction company doing business in Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan has denied ever soliciting or receiving a church as a bribe from any contractor. ‘Yes, a contractor who has worked and continues to work in Bayelsa state and other parts of Nigeria thought it fit, in fulfillment of its corporate social responsibility, to facilitate the renovation of the small church in the President’s home town of Otuoke,’ the presidency said in a statement Wednesday.
‘It takes a lot of desperation to translate this act of social responsibility for which there are innumerable precedents in our country into a crime for which the usual suspects are now calling for the ‘impeachment’ of President Jonathan,’ said the statement, made available to PANA.
The main opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has latched on to the allegation to call on the National Assembly (parliament) to commence impeachment proceedings against the President, saying that by asking the Italian construction firm Gitto Construzioni Generali Nigeria Limited (GCG) to construct a church in his home town, he had violated the Nigerian Constitution.
According to the local Thisday newspaper which broke the story in an editorial, President Jonathan said – at the inauguration of the church – that the Managing Director of Gitto made him a promise to build and donate the church to Otuoke community after he (the president) had complained of the aging structure of his church.
ACN and other critics capitalized on the President’s alleged comments to either call for his removal or condemn his actions. A local NGO, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has petitioned the anti-graft Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the allegation.
But the presidency statement accused President Jonathan political opponents and their collaborators of trying to ‘brew up a storm in a cup’ over the alleged “gift” and to ‘cast unjustifiable aspersions on his personal integrity and distract him from the serious business of governance’.
‘For the avoidance of any doubt whatsoever, the renovated church in Otuoke does not belong to President Jonathan or his family. The Church belongs to the Anglican Communion and the entire Otuoke Community. It has existed for generations and is not a new church ‘donated’ to President Jonathan by his ‘contractor friend’ as is being mischievously alleged,’ the statement said.