ALL roads will today lead to the 35.8-acre ceremonial arcade which hosted Nigeria’s independence celebration on October 1, 1960, Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos Island as the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye storms the place for this year’s annual dawn celebration of the Apapa Family of the Redeemed Christian Church of God tagged EXCEL.

Pastor Enoch Adeboye

The theme of Pastor Adeboye’s message at the programme scheduled for 7.00 a.m. will be; ‘Riding on the wings of change’, and music ministration will feature one of Nigeria’s best loved praise and worship musician, Wale Adenuga, Nigerian contemporary Christian singer-songwriter and recording artiste from Enugu, Frank Edwards and an Ikot-Ofon Ikono-born multi-talented gospel music artiste whose talents cut across music and comedy, Nathaniel Bassey.

The focus this year is on harnessing the thrust of change championed by the Apapa family since the 2010 edition with the theme – Leading Change. The Excel celebration has become a reference point in Christian social responsibility in Nigeria. There will be free food and free medical checkup for all those attending.

Addressing newsmen during the week, head of Apapa Family, Pastor Idowu Iluyomade said this year’s edition of Excel will be a consolidation of the previous activities of the organisation, noting that change has dividend and gives a lot of influence, adding that it is high time the society begins to reap the dividends of change.

Iluyomade further disclosed that apart from the free food and medical check-up which will be given to the attendees at the event, the Family made up of 11 RCCG provinces in Nigeria and others in Europe, USA, Oceania and Asia chapters will equip 500 public primary schools’ library across the 57 Local Council Development Areas (LCDA) in Lagos State before the year runs out, as part of its corporate social responsibility and its contribution to the nation’s development and in their resolve to keep stretching the horizons of social impact and change across the nation.

He stated that their drive comes from Isaac Newton’s First Law of Motion which states that “everything continues in a state of rest unless it is compelled to change by forces impressed on it”, adding that change cannot happen unless there is someone by the side to provoke it.

According to him, “change is not mouthed; it is impacted with noticeable signs that the society can attest to”, stressing that the church should be able to affect positively, the lives of the environment where it is situated through a life of service, quoting from the scriptures that faith without works is dead. He also hinted that one of the highlights of this year’s EXCEL conference would be the partication of other church leaders and general overseers, calling on other churches to key into the church’s activities and join in the transformation of Nigeria for the better.