The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) today returned fire for fire, slamming the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Presidency for hysteria and the “worst form of crudity.”
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) today returned fire for fire, slamming the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Presidency for hysteria and the “worst form of crudity.”
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The party and the presidency were responding separately to the ACN’s call on the National Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against President Goodluck Jonathan for soliciting and accepting a church 'gift' in contravention of the laws of Nigeria.
In a statement on Wednesday, presidential spokesman Reuben Abati offered a new “corporate social responsibility” theory of the church gift: “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,” he said in a statement, saying that President Jonathan never solicited or received a church as “bribe” from any contractor.
''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 ramblings,” ACN said in a statement issued in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
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He said his party would not like to deviate from its style of dwelling on issues to trade words with an “increasingly confused and an apparently overwhelmed presidential spokesman and a greenhorn PDP spokesman” looking for attention.
“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,” he reiterated.
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 untenable and actually compounds the issue.
The party asked: ''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?”
Pointing out that Mr. Jonathan himself admitted soliciting and receiving the 'gift' from the construction firm, the PDP and the presidency ought to have dispelled any misunderstanding by simply causing the President's speech at the inauguration of the church to be played for Nigerians to hear.
It further said that as is done in other cultures, the President and the company ought to have given a full of the events, leading to a full scale investigation.
''The truth is that the President's handlers are either grossly incompetent or are terribly overwhelmed by the demands of their office. Otherwise, they would have ensured that the President does not make statement that will put him in bad light. Had they done that, they would have saved themselves from having to issue, in regular intervals, statements that do no credit to the competence and professional standing of those who sign them,” the statement said.
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