By Olanrewaju Adesanya
The Primate of The African Church, His Eminence Julius Olayinka Osayande Abbe has called on Nigerians never to despair but be more fervent in prayers to secure the unity of the nation.
The cleric made this call at his Primatial Visit to The African Church Lagos West Missionary Diocese Lagos Province, Bethel Cathedral Ikorodu,Lagos on Sunday.
“As we celebrate our one year on the throne,I want the people of God to be more devoted to God, love one another and to continue to pray for this country because we have no other country that we can call our own.
“So let’s continue to do the needful that would keep us together as one people and for us to seek the welfare and wellbeing of one another in this country.
The Primate mirrors the fragile nature of the country’s unity,faulting the leadership for lacking selfless quality,which their status demands.
“Peace and unity is very very important for any nation to survive,the situation in our country as at today is that the peace and unity of the nation is highly threatened.
“This situation stems from the type of leadership that we have and their understanding of what a nation is,what a nation stands for and how to really build a nation.
“When you have leaders who cannot be trusted,who think they can do anything without following due process,who do not have the interest of the citizens at heart, who only profess to have it but do not you can’t have anything short of what you have in the nation at the moment that is what is really troubling us.
“So the leadership of this country has in many ways failed the citizenry and we have entrusted them with our votes,we entrusted them with power to lead us,to help us organize our nation in such a way that it would benefit us but unfortunately most of them are more interested in their own wellbeing and welfare than the citizen that they ought to take care of.
“Look at the plight of Nigerians,they are hard working people,they are intelligent people Nigeria is endowed with so many resources but where do we find ourselves? Is like we are no where.
It is because we don’t leaders who should have been able to help us manage resources of this country effectively.
He tasked the church to continue in fervent prayers for the country’s unity, while urging the federal government to allow more devolution of powers amidst the cadres of government, this he said will reduce the tension in the land.
“As a church we will continue to pray for the leadership of this country and we also pray for God’s guidance because alot of counsels and suggestions have been made as to how we can manage this nation more effectively.
“So in a way it’s like people are agitated, they want devolution of power,power is concentrated in an area more than in the other and this need be distributed all over.
“All these things to some people is disunity but looking deeply you still find out that there is sense in what people are advocating for,If we have devolution of power,then there would be equity.
Primate Osayande Abbe who noted that the visit ought to have been made three weeks ago, added that the conduct of Diocesan Bishop,Right Reverend Hezekiah Adetoro endears him more to visit more often,as he always leads by example and also possess a humble spirit and selfless conduct worthy of emulation.
Primate Osayande Abbe made the visit in commemoration of the celebration of his one year anniversary after ascension to the church’s Primate office.
The Bishop of the Missionary Diocese, Reverend Adetoro in a chat with newsmen said that the visit is special in that it commemorates the Primate’s first year in office,he urge members to team up for the furtherance of the gospel of Christ Jesus.
“Let us live in peace and make sure that we propagate the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“When we came on board we met nothing on ground,our intention is to have a mission’s court and secondly create more archdeaconries and hopefully by next year January or February become a full fledged Diocese, having removed the word; missionary out of our Diocese.
“We also want to plant more churches because presently we have few churches under this Diocese,which is one of the prerequisite to become a full fledged Diocese.
Also speaking Odofin Adebola Obayan,the Diocese Vice Lay President harped more on the thirst of the Church to up its scope and get elevated to a full fledged Diocese by next year February.
“The Primate’s visit is Episcopal,it means the General Superintendent of the Church is around to check on us and know how well we are faring, it is the first of it’s kind since his ascension as the Primate,we use this to publicise the church more,that we still exist as a united vineyard of God.
“Our own is a missionary Diocese and we are out to expand the scope of the Church to a full fledge Diocese, by the African Church constitution to become a Diocese you must have at least three archdeaconries and as at now we have two.
“So we have that as our target between now and the end of the year to be able to grow our strength to that level to have two additional archdeaconries making four.” Odofin Obayan said.
