By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

The donation of a church building to President Jonathan’s Otueke community stirs up a rumpus  that would ordinarily have disturbed the peace of any other mortal.

IT is noteworthy that Simon Peter one of the principal assistants of Jesus, The Christ, in his time observed that God does not dwell in buildings made by men.

It is thus remarkable that Jesus would thus be far removed from the latest controversy to have stirred the Church in Nigeria arising from the donation of a church building to the Otueke Community of President Goodluck Jonathan in Bayelsa State.

The church building built by the Italian construction company, Gitto, was reportedly donated to the Otueke Anglican Community on the request of the Otueke community.

However, what took issues to a controversial platform were assertions made by the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, to the effect that the President admitted soliciting for the building.

Alleged solicitation
The ACN in a statement issued last Tuesday tasked the National Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against the President on account of the alleged solicitation.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said commencing the impeachment proceedings would enable the National Assembly investigate the matter and also reach the appropriate conclusions, since the President, by his own admission and without any prompting, thumbed his nose at the Constitution.

The party’s assertion was upon claims which the party credited to the President that he admitted soliciting for funds for the building of the church. The ACN spokesman said that the President openly and gleefully said at the inauguration of the church at his Otuoke hometown, 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.”

The ACN said that the action was a clear violation of the constitution. “To know the gravity of the President’s self admission of soliciting the church ‘gift’ from the Managing Director of Gitto Construzioni Generali Nigeria Limited (GCG), one needs to understand Section 6 of the Code of Conduct for Public officers embodied in the First Schedule of the 1999 Constitution and the Code of Conduct and Tribunal Act (CAP C15) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

St. Stephen Anglican Church, Otu Oke

“The Act states: ‘A public officer shall not ask for or accept any property or benefits of any kind for himself or any other person on account of anything done or omitted to be done by him in the discharge of his duties.

“For the purposes of subsection (1) of this subsection, the receipt by a public officer of any gifts or benefits from commercial firms, business enterprises or persons who have contracts with the Government shall be presumed to have been received in contravention, unless the contrary is proved,” the party said.

ACN said that by the action that the President had also undermined his capacity to fight graft in the system as it noted that the construction company in question had been fingered for poor execution of contracts.

The claim was one that the presidency did not leave unanswered. Presidential spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati in his reaction on Wednesday described the ACN’s action as reckless, infantile and laughable.

“The Presidency has noted with surprise and some amusement, the patently laughable attempt by political opponents of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and their collaborators to brew up a storm in a cup over the alleged “gift” of a church to the President.

“It should be clear to all knowledgeable and discerning Nigerians that these allegations are nothing other than another mischievous attempt to denigrate President Jonathan, cast unjustifiable aspersions on his personal integrity and distract him from the serious business of governance.

“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.

“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. 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.”

Joining issues
The PDP which until now had been relatively hesitant in joining issues with the ACN through its newly elected National Publicity Secretary, Barrister Olisa Metuh also jumped into the fray with a strong denunciation of the ACN.

Metuh articulating the views of the party’s new national chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, urged the National Assembly to remain indifferent to the entreaty of the ACN. He said: “We are not surprised the ACN is losing sleep over the maturity and stability that the National Assembly led by our great Party has gained in the last few years, much less its smooth working relationship with the executive.

“However, where the opposition is irresponsibly engrossed in making a mountain out of a mole hill and ceaselessly creating an imaginary tiger in the neighbourhood, it leaves no one in doubt that it is committed to a hidden agenda that neither benefits the nation nor enables the people.

The PDP demanded from the ACN a proof to Nigerians that the rehabilitation of a community church by a construction company, an act which ordinarily falls under community relations has personally benefited the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The defence of the PDP and the presidency was, however, dismissed by other stakeholders in the opposition and civil society.

Claim of decency
The Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, on its part faulted the presidency’s claim of decency on the issue saying through its spokesman, Engr. Rotimi Fashakin, that the President was turning into an imperial president on account of the deficiencies of the Nigerian constitution.

“The President knows that the Nigerian constitution supports imperial presidency and he knows that he is an autocratic President. What he has done is an impeachable, he has broken and transgressed our laws, he has committed infractions against the constitution, it is because that in this part of the world that we don’t have respect for decency.

“If we have respect for constitutional order, President Jonathan should not stay a day longer in office with what he has done. The fuel subsidy alone should have made him to leave. A man that budgeted N240 billion but yet expended more than N2 trillion unbudgeted funds for the said subsidy. Jonathan is gradually becoming an imperial President, he is running a fascist regime. We are at his mercy,” Fashakin said yesterday.

Civil rights activist, Barrister Bamidele Aturu in his reaction to the issue on Wednesday raised some pertinent questions on the development. “The question is whether the code of conduct even allows him to receive such gifts under the law and that raises moral questions that he needs to respond to.”

Asking whether the President was a community leader to solicit for such gifts on behalf of his community, Aturu asked: “Why was that church not given to other communities even in Bayelsa State?” “Was that thing not given with an intention and intent to compromise him?,” he further asked.

“This is why I think he ought to have been more circumspect in accepting the gift of the church building on behalf of the church. This is my view and I think it is morally indefensible, he did not probably consider all the implications. It is an error of judgment and he should return the gift. It is a Greek gift with the aim of compromising him.”

Against the background of the demand by the ACN for the President’s impeachment, Aturu said: “It is an impeachable offence but I doubt whether that will fly with the National Assembly?”

Moral fibre
Aturu does not believe that the National Assembly has the moral fibre to raise the issue. The ACN in a follow-up to the issue, yesterday, chided the presidency and the PDP for avoiding the crucial issues it raised in its earlier statement as to whether the foreign construction company, Gitto built a church building for the President’s community.

Noting what it described as the trademark Freudian slip on the part of the President, ACN spokesman, Mohammed in a statement yesterday said:  “Since the statements did not deny that the church in question was constructed or ‘renovated’ by a foreign construction firm taking contracts from the government and that the church is situated in the President’s community, and since they did not refute the statement credited to the President himself that he solicited and received the ‘gift’, then we are compelled to renew our call on the National Assembly to urgently launch impeachment proceedings against the President.”

ACN said the presidential spokesman’s explanation that the church’s renovation is part of the construction company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and that the church does not belong to Jonathan or his family is too untenable and actually compounds the issue.

“What is this company’s track record of CSR in Bayelsa or any other state in Nigeria, where it has obtained billions of naira in contracts? Why did the company choose the President’s village to do its CSR? Even if it is CSR, is it not a gift to the President’s community. What qualifies that community for this CSR above any other community? Assuming it was even legitimate CSR, shouldn’t the President see the obvious conflict of interest in a church where he worships being gratuitously renovated by a government contractor?”

Given the exuberant exhibition that would have taken place on account of God’s blessings on the Otueke community through the President, many in the community would now be distressed. But it is reassuring, as Peter said, that God does not dwell in buildings made by men anymore. Were it not so, the ongoing altercation between the ACN and the President’s apologists would have seriously bestirred The Almighty!