Abuja -- Nigeria's National Ecumenical Centre, which cost 2.6 billion naira (US$20 million) to build, has been dedicated in the country's capital city at a service attended by President Olusegun Obasanjo who said "fraudsters" had failed to derail the project. The president at the 2 October ceremony condemned those whom he said made false pledges to the fundraiser for the centre, and said a lot of work still needed to be done to get the centre into a desired state.
Thousands listened to Obasanjo talking of how those behind the cash-strapped centre were pushed to obtain a 614 million naira loan to continue the project following the failure of a donor to redeem a pledge of 1.7 billion naira.
"I want to make one point clear, that as far as the money we have spent [on the Ecumenical Centre] * not one penny of federal government money has gone in. It is money from Nigerian people and institutions who generously gave for the work of God," explained Obasanjo, who said he had been the guarantor of the loan.
Still, barely two days after the inauguration of the centre, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), a national church grouping, threatened to boycott a census scheduled for 2006 should the government insist on excluding ethnicity and religion as indices in the national headcount.
CAN is protesting against the inclusion of 'local government of origin' and 'language spoken' in the questionnaire at the expense of 'religion' and 'tribe' from the data collection form for the March 2006 headcount.
Obasanjo had at the ceremony praised CAN for getting the funds to complete the centre after taking the bank loan to complete the project.
"I want to thank God that today, we have been able to complete this project which shall serve as a national monument for our people," said Obasanjo, who belongs to the 40 per cent Christian minority in Nigeria.
Archbishop Peter Jasper Akinola, leader of the (Anglican) Church of Nigeria, who is president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, described the centre as the only one of its kind in world Christendom. "We have set this house apart as a symbol of peace in our land," he said.
:: About 50 per cent of Nigeria's population of 129 million are estimated to be Muslims.
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