By Bridget Ikyado
Abuja – The President of the FCT Baptist Conference, Rev. Dogara-Raphael Gwana has called for collaborative efforts to promote religious harmony, peaceful coexistence and social cohesion in the country.
Gwana made the appeal on Thursday during a press conference he addressed to mark the opening of the 7th Annual session of the FCT Baptist Conference, holding in Abuja.
He said that the church would partner with the media to pray earnestly for Nigeria to attain its full potentials and play prominent role in the comity of nations.
He said that Nigeria is confronted multi-faceted problems, ranging from social unrests, insecurity, rising crime and criminality, which required concerted efforts to address.
According to him, this is necessary as government efforts to tackle the problems has not yielded appreciable results.
The FCT Baptist President said that the level of insecurity in the country had increased exponentially, with widespread attacks affecting all areas of the Nigerian society, irrespective of faith.
He said that government must go after the perpetrators and ensure justice for victims.
“God forgives and restores men, but governments are established to ensure justice which serves as a deterrent against the perpetuation of criminality.
“We appreciate the President’s commitment during the Democracy Day message to Nigeria where he promised to end the insecurity before his tenure ends.
“We call on the President to keep his word and mobilize all government apparatus to go after these criminals until they are fully rounded up.
“This we believe is within the capacity of our military if there is government willpower and true commitment,” Gwana said.
On the closure of universities, he said government and trade unions in the university system should return to the negotiating table.
“We appeal to the Federal Government and the leadership of ASUU to return to the negotiating table with the sole aim of rescuing the future of our younger generation,” he added.
He also spoke on the high cost of living in the country due to hyper-inflation, which has made “everyone, both the rich and the poor crying.
“Although , the Federal Government has invested heavily into the local rice production, yet the
price of even the local rice produced in-country is still at the rooftops.
“Foodstuff, transportation and other daily needs of the common man are completely unbearable.
“While the church prays for government to be guided and helped by God, the government should show deliberate commitment and interest in the rescue of the country and the support of the common man.”
On the 2023 national elections, Gwana expressed concern over the use of money to buy delegates during the political parties primaries, describing the situation as most unfortunate.
(Reverend Gwana during the press conference in Abuja.)
He said that government must take punitive measures to curb the trend.
The FCT Baptist President also said any attempt by any political party to pick presidential running mate from same religion would be unfair and unjust.
“It is not in keeping with the principles of fair play and equal representation,” he added.
He therefore called on the presidential candidates to aim at healing the country and apply wisdom in the actions they take towards selecting their running mates.
“We call on all citizens living in the country to do whatever it takes to get their voters card, in order
to be able to participate in the coming general election.
“Praying is good but is not enough.
“We commend INEC’s efforts at making the registration easy by establishing more centres and booths.
“We are confident that the process leading to the elections will continue in the direction of fairness and justice,” he added.
He also called for the return of missionary schools taken over in the 70s by government, saying doing so would help their original owners to restore sanity back to the system. (NAN/vitalnewsngr.com)
