Otuoke, village of President Goodluck Jonathan is in the news for the second time, in less than a year.
.
The issue remains the same: a church.
.
National outrage rained on an Italian construction firm, Gitto Construzioni Generali Nigeria Limited, that in June 2012 built a church in Otuoke. The President then confirmed that he had asked the company owner Domenico Gitto, for a befitting church in Otuoke.
.
Public anger centred on the fact that Gitto was a contractor to the Federal Government. It was thought its owner was seeking ways to win more contracts or be paid the billions of Naira he was owed. Gitto passed on last year.
.
The anger this time is no less so. More than N6 billion was raised for another church in Otuoke, again at the instance of the President and similarly by contractors and other favour seekers.
.
They claim gratitude to God and possibly divine prompting that all that Otuoke requires is a church. Nothing can be further from the truth. The President's village suffers the retarding poverty that weighs down Nigeria.
.
Otuoke was one of the places last year's floods submerged, not sparing the President's mansion.
.
The devastation left marks that neither the President nor his friends has done anything to ameliorate. Could this explain why the launching had to be held in Lagos?