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By Christopher Oji
National president, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Bishop Wale Oke, has called on the Federal Government to do something drastic about unemployment to reduce crime rate in the country.
The PFN national president made the appeal in Lagos recently during a press conference ahead of the fellowship’s 40th anniversary celebration scheduled for the month of October 2025, saying, with creation of jobs, crime rate would reduce drastically.
According to him the fellowship has been doing its best in job creation as they have done massive employment in the churches , offices and schools all over the country. I want you to know that spreading the Gospel to millions of people through evangelism and revival has helped to stop crime, immortality, and hopelessness from overwhelming society.
“I urged the government to establish cottage industries across the 774 local government areas and employ 500 youths in each;such a move will drive production, curb unemployment, and boost the economy.”
On education, Oke urged increased funding and stricter monitoring of the sector to guarantee quality learning for all Nigerian children, lamenting how children, especially in the North, were still learning under the trees.
He also called for reforms in the health sector, questioning why Nigerian leaders have continued to seek medical treatment abroad.
The PFN leader proposed equipping at least one tertiary hospital in each of the six geopolitical zones to a world-class standard, both in infrastructure and personnel, to curb medical tourism and restore citizens’ confidence in the system.
Continuing, Oke said there was a need for better pay and conditions for health workers to stem the exodus of professionals to other countries, urging the government to fully implement the new minimum wage.
He also appealed to the government to address critical infrastructure, such as electricity, roads, railways, and to revive Nigerian Airways to boost national pride.
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On governance, the PFN president stressed that the anti-corruption fight must be impartial, with no sacred cows, urging total independence for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to guarantee credible elections.
He clarified insinuations that Faith-Based Organisations (FBOs) were building schools with exorbitant fees that average members cannot afford, noting that many of such institutions offer scholarships through the church’s foundation for qualified students who cannot afford the fees.
“A lot is done behind the scenes that our faith doesn’t allow us to speak publicly about. Running a university is not a profitable venture. It is just our contribution to better the future of this country. The mission schools you talked about were founded by missionaries ,who got funding from their home countries.
“In Nigeria, we are the home. We are the nation. We are the people generating everything. We’re not being sponsored from America or from anywhere…
“We would like you to inform the people about the good sides. In our universities and institutions, there is zero tolerance for cultism. Sexual harassment is not tolerated, and there are no interruptions in the education calendar of the students…
“We stand on two very serious pillars – academic excellence and moral/spiritual soundness. We make sure that we’re not producing educated crooks who will go to Africa to loot our treasury. We produce people with a moral compass based on core biblical values.
“ Without our Universities, the standard of education would have reduced to embarrassing level,but we maintain standard and there is no way people can rate universities with standard without mentioning five of FBOs. We pay our lecturers living wages. We have many Professors and we can’t say because we are doing God’s work, our lecturers will be asked to do their job probono, no we pay them well to give our students quality education, he added.
On activities to celebrate its 40th anniversary, Bishop Oke said the association would unveil a new legacy headquarters in Abuja during its weeklong festivities.
He said there were also plans to review PFN’s Constitution to standardize the Pentecostal doctrine to minimize controversies, adding that there would be holistic development of the directorate of politics and governance.
Bishop Oke was joined in the press conference by National Planning Committee chairman, Bishop Taiwo Adelakun; former Secretary of PFN, Archbishop Joseph Ojo; PFN Jos chairman, Dr Stephen Dangana, and PFN Lagos Chairman, Pastor Yemi Davids.
