As the Diocese of Lagos (Anglican Communion) set to wind
up the celebrations designed to mark the 100 years of existence of the church,
it held what it called The Centenary Anniversary Lecture where the best minds
in the country were gathered to speak on issues of Corruption and how the
church can assist in fighting the scourge. Venue of the event was All Soul’s
Church, Lekki Lagos on Wednesday. SUCCESS DAMIAN reports.
Speaking on the choice of the theme
of the lecture: ‘The Church and Good Governance in Nigeria’ The Rt. Rev’d (Dr)
Humphrey Bamisebi Olumakaiye, the
Diocesan Bishop of Lagos & Missioner said “It is just a way of making sure that
we play our role in teaching the Christian virtues of transparency, of honesty,
of righteousness in government, of dignity of labour, of true obedience to the
word of God and a life of selfless service, and making sure we make life worth
living for people around us. It is also to remind us that we are on a journey,
we are all in a borrowed suit and a day of reckoning is coming, when we give
account of our stewardship on earth.
“We should not be involved or
attached to the world. We should live a godly life and that is the message we
are passing across to people in government, to church leaders, and to the
generality of the people, we should live for the people and we believe we have
gotten the message right and the lord will move us forward,” Olumakaiye stated.
He also spoke on other programs
to round off the centenary celebration of the church “We are awarding heroes
and legends of the Anglican Diocese of Lagos, those people that have
contributed immensely to the growth of our church in the last 100 years. And the grand finale, we are having a national
service at the cathedral church of Christ Marina on Tuesday.”
Professor Bolaji Akimyemi, former
Minister of External Affairs, who was the chairman of the occasion said, the
church should continue to preach against the evils that people in office do and
that they also need to preach to the ordinary people.
“If people don’t follow
corrupt politicians, corruption will be tackled, that is number one. The church
has to preach against that. The church has to stop showing favouritism towards
rich people who have no source of their wealth; the church should stop
worshipping them. You go to churches, it is money, money, money, actually Jesus
himself has to cleans his temple when he found the kind of activities there, so
churches in Nigeria should stop worshipping money. And finally the church has
to continue to tell government, have the courage to confront government; they
must have to do that,” Akinyemi stated.
On his part, Mr. Peter Obi, Former
Governor of Anambra State and Vice Presidential candidate in the 2019 election
who spoke on the topic ‘The Church as Vanguard of Good Governance’, while
stating that the worst form of corruption is bad leadership, called for
transparency in the process of electing leaders. He insisted that the system
for the enthronement of any leader, be it religious or political leadership
must be sanitized, in order to stop corrupt people from ascending to the position
of leadership.
He stated “The worst form of
corruption in any society is bad leadership. And when we talk about fighting
corruption, it is all of us; we have to stop it, that corruption, before it
comes into government. For instance, you cannot go and get a criminal and
ordain him a bishop and then start pursuing him all over the place. There is a
process of becoming a bishop, what we have to do is for the process to be fair,
let us stop them before they arrive there, before they get into government,” Obi
advocated.
Other speakers at the event include
Chairman Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay
(SAN) who delivered a paper on the topic ‘The Role of the Church in Combating
Corruption in Nigeria’, and Honourable Justice Osat Obaseki-Osaghea, Judge of
Nigeria Industria Court, she spoke on the theme, Promoting the Common Good of
Nigeria’.
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