Implications of Gitto’s “corporate social Responsibility”

To acutely grasp Mr President’s folly in accepting
a church ‘gift’ from the
Abuja-based Italian construction
company, Gitto Construzioni
Generali(GCG) Nigeria Ltd, we need to
peruse Sec 6 of the Code of Conduct
for Public officers 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.

”The Act stipulates: ‘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’. That is, there is a legal
presumption that acceptance of
gifts by public officers is prima-facie
unlawful.
Apart from these express provisions,
there are also ethics occupants of
public offices, and the office of the
president for that matter, ought to
abide with, in the discharge of their
duties. In view of these, one begins
to wonder, Mr president knew d implications when he accepted
the Greek gift and when he publicly
declared that he took bribe? How
could he openly and gleefully say,
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, which apparently no
longer befits the status of the
president’s village.’ Did he naively
expect an ovation?of what use are his
numerous advisers? How come they
did not tell him that he was
embarking on a grievous illegality
and depravity?
I can not stop amusing myself each
time I cogitate how Jonathan could
willingly choose to bring himself and
his office, which is the highest in the
land, to a ridiculous disrepute.
It is another unforced error
committed freely by Jonathan since
he took over as president. I have
said once that one of Jonathan’s
greatest enemies is himself. Since
the modern history of Nigeria, there
has been no leader who enjoyed so
much goodwill as this president.
Likewise there has been no
president who eagerly squanders
his goodwill and also put himself
and this nation, through his gaffes,
on the path to peril as him.
Even if he must take bribe, since
corruption is norm in this country,
must he publicly disclose it? To
think he could do this (take bribe
and publicly confess he took one)
and get away with it in a country
that has laws against corruption,
and one that is pretending
nationally and internationally to be
seriously fighting corruption is surprising.
The damage-control efforts by his
media man, Reuben Abati further
point to the fact that all the men
and women around the president qualify for
psychiatric scrutiny. They still see
nothing wrong in the actions of their
boss. For them it is “surprising and
amusing”, and “patently laughable
attempt by political opponents and
their collaborators to “brew up a
storm in a cup”. By their own
estimation, Gitto was only fulfilling
its corporate responsibility by
facilitating the building of the
church for the Otuoke community.
But the question they ducked was,
why must it be the president’s
village that should benefit from
such? And didn’t the president
shoot himself at the foot when, he
openly, without compulsion,
conceded that he pushed for the
church for his community and the
managing director of Gitto fulfilled
his promise to him?
Dr Abati, I disagree with you that
those calling for the president to
account for his misdeed are his
political opponents and their
collaborators who want “to
denigrate President Jonathan, cast
unjustifiable aspersions on his
personal integrity and distract him
from the serious business of
governance” The truth of the matter
remains that, by personally pushing
for the Otuoke church bequest, your
employer broke the law, abused and
compromised the office of the
president, side by side the national
security implications of taking bribe
from foreign nationals who may
have an agenda they are pursuing
in the country.
Having broken the law, it would only
enrich our democracy if the
president accounted for his action,
so that our country would finally
break away from the league of those
where the high and mighty get
away with flouting the law.
If no investigation is set in motion
against this president for his
transgression, then we can all hide
our heads in shame that our
country is a mockery of a state.It is only in a mad country that a
sitting president will overtly admit
taking bribe from a foreign
construction company, in
desecration of the constitution he
swore to preserve, and still go about
his business as president and
commander-in-chief as if nothing
happened.