By OLAYINKA LATONA

The Vice president, The Apostolic church Nigeria, TACN, and LAWNA Territorial Chairman, Pastor Gabriel Uyeh has emphasised the need for leaders to be wholly committed to their service to God and humanity.

Pastor Uyeh warned that service without total consecration and commitment is unacceptable to God, and, as such, unproductive and unfruitful.

.The LAWNA Chairman said this at the end of the church’s 48th International convention held at the church Headquarters, Olorunda, Ketu, Lagos, with the theme: “We must appear before the judgement-seat of Christ”.

He further advised the federal government not to encourage policies that make Nigerians poorer, adding that the policies of the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have contributed to making more Nigerians poor.

In his words: “The government should distance itself  from policies that can further aggravate hardship and inflict pain on Nigerians. There is a lot of hunger, pain, frustration in the country and the government is still dishing out policies that further add pain to the existing challenges.

“As a church, we would continue to pray for the government and the nation, but they have to be sincere and be passionate and should not just be telling Nigerians to be patient and endure when people in government are living in affluence, as if they are not part of Nigerians to be patient and endure.

“The government should stop taking Nigerians for granted and stop the act of wickedness by putting burdens on Nigerians who are finding it difficult to feed with their families

Addressing the congregation about the church arm that sees to the welfare of the needy, the vice president of the group,, The Widow & Widower Initiative, Deaconess Veronica Aisida said the initiative impact programmes in health, education, empowerment, capacity-building, among other interventions, brought hope, happiness and light to many Nigerians.

She said the  group was recently inaugurated officially by the LAWNA chairman who is also the initiator.

In her words: The purpose of this initiative is to take care of the widows and the widowers in the church including the needy that have nobody to take care of them. Among the programs we have for them is paying for school fees through scholarships for those who can not afford school fees, foodstuff, organise programmes that will impact them spiritually, mentally, health wise and financially.

“In our last gathering, we had about 100 participants and were given foods, clothes, each of the participants was also empowered financially in own little way. The church is now more committed to cater for these sets of people.”