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By Vivian Onyebukwa
The Order of Knights of St Mulumba Nigeria, Lagos Metro Council honoured their immediate past executives, and some other members at St Leo’s Catholic Church, Ikeja, Lagos.
The event started with a church service officiated by Rev Fr Kenneth Mereh, Assistant Metro Chaplain, Order of the Knights of St Mulumba KSM, Lagos Metropolitan Council.
Rev Fr Mereh started by expressing gratitude to the outgoing executive members of the noble order who have served at the supreme and metro council levels.
He extended his gratitude to Sir Charles Mbelede, Sir Don Eze and their team for leading by example and representing the council of the metro very well. “Indeed for the years of your leadership you have actually come out and charted courses that others who will pick up the reins of leadership after you must follow because working with you, you have actually shown that indeed the reward for hard work is what is more work and we are grateful to you all”
The Priest also prayed for the incoming officers for God to continue through them, noting that being a good leader is to be a good follower making references to some incidents in the Bible.
The new Supreme Knight of Knights of Saint Mulumba Nigeria, Sir Steve Adehi (SAN), promised that his tenure will concentrate on two major areas- discipline in the order, and their investments to ensure that Knights are well formed and give the very best behavioural representation of the Catholic Church. “We also have to look at our investments. We have a lot of investments. We want to ensure that for the first time they get returns on investment”
He stated that steps have been taken by setting up various committees to look into these investments, why they are not running well, and to ensure that within a few months they are able to get things back on track.
Sir Adehi who is also the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Saint Mulumba in Nigeria, Cameroon and Uganda, however noted that it won’t be an easy task, but have identified that they are up to the task. “That’s why we are taking this responsibility of leading this association at this critical time and I know with God on our side we are going to achieve so much”.
He hinted that their four years tenure will be very impactful as they will extend into things like education. “There are so many disenfranchised schools around, many hospitals that need assistance. We want to see how we can get enough funds to be able to go into those areas. We don’t rule out the possibility of even setting up a model school for people to emulate. There are hospitals run by the Catholic Mission, there are also hospitals run by the government. We want to see how we can get our members to also assist in rendering services in those areas”.
These projects according to him, if executed will help members to begin to get returns on the investments they’ve made over the years.
He revealed strategies to achieve discipline in the Order, which include continuos training of their members for them to understand the essence of knighthood as shining example to members in the parish. “People look up to them and so by misbehaving, people see that misbehaviour as the right thing to do. But we see this as a big challenge. That’s why I say it’s a burden on us.We need to look at membership, recruitment criteria to get in new members into the order. Members that will be shining examples that people can learn from, not members who will be a scandal to the church”.
Speaking about insecurity in the country, he revealed plans by the Order to set up a new committee to come up with ideas on ways to tackle it. “Just as the responsibilities in medieval times to defend the church, and then the propagation of the faith too. Now we cannot defend the church by carrying swords and guns. So in that light, we cannot do what they did in medieval times, carrying swords. But what we have been able to do now is to set up a committee made up of people who have knowledge in intelligence matters, expected to come up with blueprint on how to address this issue of insecurity that affects the safety of our parishes. So we are going to train them, come up with policies, ways to help to train the cadets, MODs, and also the local parish security outfits on how they are going to respond to issues of insecurity and all that”.
He noted that the church right now in Nigeria is under threat, and they must respond to it intelligently to be able to safeguard some of their parishes and the Catholic community from external attack.
He described the current economy in Nigeria as a general issue, saying: “On paper, the economy is doing well, but if you look at the lives of individuals, it’s not doing well. So part of our call to government is to ensure that this dividend of democracy, improvement in the economy spreads down to the common man on the streets, because right now the common man is not feeling it.”
Nosa Godwin Ehigiator, the current Metro Grand Knights of Lagos Metro Council, described his new position as a call to service. He promised to walk together with the new Supreme Knight of Knights of Saint Mulumba Nigeria, Sir Steve Adehi to achieve success on their two major issues during their tenure.
He urged members to contribute money towards their projects.
Also speaking, Sir Charles Mbelede, the immediate past Supreme Knight of Nigeria, and the current Deputy International President of the International Alliance of Catholic Knights, wished the incoming executives a progressive, fruitful and hitch free tenure.
He advised them to follow his steps by working together to achieve success. “They should think together, plan together, and achieve together. That has been the way forward, and that remains the way forward.”
He advised the government to improve the security architecture, adding that the country is in a situation of near collapse. Mbelede equally urged the government to think progressively, and optimize the new tax law to make it less stressful.
