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By Vivian Onyebukwa
The Grand President of Lagos Grand Commandery, Knights of St John International, Brig General Chuks Joachim Amambo, has urged the government to ensure that they map out more funds into education to minimize the level of out-of-school children in the country.
Brig General Amambo stated this at the just-concluded grand finale of the Archbishop Adewale Martins family quiz competition, called the Catholic Faith Family Project, which took place at St Leo’s Catholic Church, Ikeja, Lagos.
He pleaded with the authorities to vote for more money for the Ministry of Education and ensure that they transition into the education of the schoolchildren.
He frowned at the education policies in Nigeria, which he said is not being given the right place.
“Education in Nigeria has become for the highest bidder. Only the children of the elites can access education.”
He pleaded with the government to vote more money for education during the budget, and also ensure that the teachers are well paid because most teachers if not well motivated, don’t perform much in the classroom.
Speaking about the quiz competition, Brig General Amambo stated that the quiz was all about the Catholic faith.
According to him, it became imperative following the general belief among some other religious groups that Catholics do not read the Bible and do not know the Bible.
“But from what happened here today, you can see that a lot of the Catholics have the Bible at their fingertips. So we are deepening the Catholic faith through the catechism, reading the Bible and competing on them.”
The final quiz completion which was the the 9th edition, was organized by Knights of St John International, Lagos Grand Commandery, Archdiocesan Laity Council Catechetis, and the Directorate of Religious Education.
Explaining further about the quiz, Brig General Amambo said, “We had five contestants in the final stage because the Lagos Archdiocese is divided into five regions.
“The competition starts from the Parish to the deanery and then to the region where the champion from each region would come for the final competition.”
He expressed satisfaction at the turnout of the annual event.
Archbishop of Lagos, Most Rev Dr Alfred Adewale Martins, who was present at the occasion commended the organisers for putting the event together.
“You have done this as part of the effort to expand the scope of good news through this means of learning the faith”, the Archbishop said.
He also commended the ladies and men of KSJI for carrying on this tradition which has generated so much interest.
“I commend you for the initiative and for being faithful to it over the years. I am happy because it has been replicated in other places outside this diocese.”
To the contestants, the Archbishop commended them for taking time to study for the competition and urged them not to allow their thirst for knowledge to end in this competition.
He equally commended the organisers for their collaboration, adding that the idea should extend to other aspects of their lives as an archdiocese.
