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From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Federal Government has been advised to work closely and collaboratively with faith-based organisations particularly the church to tackle and suppress the growing record of hunger and poverty in Nigeria that has resulted in criminality and restiveness.
Founder and President of World Royal City Church, Bishop Emmanuel Effa, dropped the suggestion at the opening ceremony of a meeting of a network of 4000 Christian Nigerian Pastors in Abuja, at the weekend, which also provided an opportunity to celebrate the 17th anniversary of the Church.
Bishop Effa, in his remarks, noted that faith-based organizations in Nigeria particularly the Church, have become a trusted place of refuge and succour for the people, hence they are easily and freely approached for humanitarian interventions.
He noted that government, working with the Church and its leaders that command unprecedented loyalty and respect, will ensure that equity, trust and justice is done to all Nigerians in terms of implementing programmes that will bring succour, and lift the people off the poverty circle.
He said: “We are seen as a philanthropic or charity organization. So, if government can closely work with the church leaders, we would be able to reach more people than they are doing now. Besides, the church and its leaders have been able to build trust with the people over the years, whether as Pastors, Bishops or Prophets. So, when we work with government to reach these people, they will trust us the more.
“In every society, you can’t do without religion. The church and its leaders interface with people at different levels. So, government needs to partner with them so they can get to people that ordinarily they will not get to, because there are people who would walk into the church, who have not eaten, but who can not walk to government offices for the same purposes.
“Though, such relationship exist but we should have more of that. I suggest that the church should be given an opportunity to nominate or elect a member in the House of Representative to represent the Church, the Body of Christ, in the National Assembly so that he or she can speak for the church at such law making floor.”
Regarding the 17th anniversary celebration of the church, Bishop Effa noted that they invited Pastors from across the country to support their activities and empower them to do more work for the Body of Christ.
“As part of the celebration, we will be making presentations including 100 suits to Pastors as gifts. We also have two Associations that we have inaugurated; the Pastors’ Support Network which is a network of over 4000 Pastors, and the Grand Alliance of Christian Bishops and Ministers.
“At the Pastor’s Support Network, the Lord began to tell us to raise Pastors who will be taught how to lead in this generation and raise Pastors to support Pastors. Usually, Pastors expect support to come from outside, but we also said that support for Pastors can actually come from within themselves.
“So, Pastors are the support network, a network of Pastors supporting Pastors. We started with just a group of 10 Pastors, and today, we have over 4, 000 Pastors, and in this two-years of existence, we have got succour and encouragement to Pastors. We have given over 1000 suits to Pastors, and most times, we help them out when they have crisis in their ministries and their personal lives.
“Similarly, the Grand Alliance of Christian Bishop is just a modern organization, and it is an organization of Bishops. We have over 50 Bishop from six states in the country, and they have all come to celebrate with us, as we celebrate our 17th year anniversary”, he added.
