By SAM EYOBOKA  & OLAYINKA LATONA

PARTICIPANTS at the 10th general synod of Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), including the Lagos State governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, Anglican Primate, Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, his immediate predecessor, Most Rev. Peter Akinola and former Information Minister, Prof. Jerry Gana had proposed two appro-aches to tackle the growing trend of insecurity in the country.

Speaking at the opening session of the once-in-three years synod with a theme, ‘Restoring what the locusts had eaten’, at the Archbishop Vining Memorial Cathedral Ch-urch, Ikeja, Lagos, the eminent Nigerians want well meaning Nigerians to intensify their prayers for peace while urging the security apparatus to be more proactive in policing the nation by shar-pening their surveillance unit to nip some of these crimes in the bud.

In his goodwill message to the synod, the Lagos State governor represent-ed by his deputy, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope-Adefu-lire appreciated the role of the church during the April 2011 elections in en-suring free, fair and credible polls, urging the Church in the state to intensify its prayers for peace.

According to Fashola, who argued that in the South West practitioners of the two major religions co-habit together without rancour, said the current state of insecurity has posed a serious challen-ge to the government at different levels, pointing out that the Church has a great responsibility to pray so that God can restore all the years the cancer worms have eaten.

The governor therefore appealed to the Church leadership in Lagos to objectively assess the security situation with a view to improving on the relationship among the two major religions in the country.

The primate, who emph-asized the need for Nigerians to forgive themsel-ves, likened the state of affairs in the country today to that biblical story in Joel 2:25, saying that ‘the days the locust had eaten’ refers to a period of acute spiritual drought, spiritual dryness and famine.

“Over the years, as it were, the dreadful locusts of corruption, dereliction of duty in governance, connivance, compromise, incompetence, favouritism and misrule have resulted in a state of terrible econo-mic, social, political and moral decline in this country,” Most Rev. Okoh said, adding “there are manifestations of dysfunctional indicators in every sphe-re.”

According to him, over the years the effects of the locusts became very clear as the nation’s infrastructure became either dilapidated or totally ruined, pointing out that “we have now reached a very dangerous point – the country is being sustained from only one source – oil.”

Continuing, Primate Okoh said: “Let us pray against strife and all agents of destruction and backwardness, that under this government our country will actually transform from poverty to true wea-lth, from insecurity and death to the permanent peace which God supplies. That God will take away our reproach, take away darkness and give us His light.”

He also urged Nigerians to offer fervent prayers for President Goodluck Jona-than and members of his cabinet, that success may attend their administration in every sphere of our national life; that the pro-mised transformation may be realized sooner than expected.

The immediate past primate of the church, Most Rev. Akinola renowned for his vehement opposition to guy marriages and homosexuality in the Europe and America, said as Christians in Nigeria today, “we need to stand out without fear to preach the Word with re-pentance and teach our kids about the need to avert all these calamities be divinely restored.

“Pray that what has been lost to all these violence in the society be restor-ed,” he said, stressing the urgent need for Nigerians not to be sway-ed by the manipulations of the Western world and embrace the sound biblical doctrines which were handed to us from the days of yore.

Addressing newsmen, the former Information Minister, Prof. Gana described the current security situation in the country as worrisome, saying that the solution lies on the prayers of the saints.

According to him, pray-ers alone may not solve it, stating that the Feder-al Government must evo-lve ways of always getting ahead of the perpetrators of such devilish crimes by upgrading its surveillance network and overhauling the entire security apparatus.