OUR Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, Victoria Island, Lagos, recently held a Job and Career Fair in response to the high rate of unemployment in the country. In this interview with Laja Thomas, the parish priest, Rev. Fr. Henry Omonisaye, explains why the church organised the fair and urged government to urgently respond to what has now become a national emergency.

Your parish just celebrated one year anniversary. How is it like having a church in this kind of environment?

The beauty of the Catholic Church is its universality. The parish is located in the business centre of not just Lagos, but the country. We are happy to have people come in here during working hours for prayers and for Mass. We have Mass here every morning and afternoon for people during their lunch break. Basically, the church is now nearer to residents of Victoria Island who were hitherto attending the Church of Assumption, Falomo, which is quite a distance.

As part of the annniversary, the parish held a Job and Career Fair. Is the church not delving into issues that are outside its purview?

Well, the art of governance is a collective responsibility and so the church is also governed by ordinary laws. I also believe that the task of employing people is also a collective responsibility based on the prevailing situation in Nigeria. But let’s get it clear; the church is not employing; it is rather by this singular act bringing our unemployed parishioners to meet those who can offer them jobs.

Father Omonisaye

Both the job seekers and the employers are parishioners and you don’t want to see one of your own suffering when there could be solution to joblessness from the next person sitting beside you. So, it’s not us delving into government’s responsibility. Don’t forget, there is what the church calls social justice based on one being able to do what is right within the community.

Is the fair limited to just Catholics or how do you reach out to other people?
Not at all!! It is for everyone. Coincidently, I received a call some days before the event from a member of the public trying to find out if the fair was for Catholics only, and I said no. Why would you want to limit it? We are all one created by God.

No doubt the crowd was a mixture of persons with diverse religious backgrounds. Some persons have come to us here requesting for people with different qualifications and experience for several vacant positions. To answer the second question, we reached out to people through words of mouth aside the fact that we made announcements at Church of Assumption Falomo, Saint Augustine, Ikorodu, Our Lady of Fatima, Aguda, and here in Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Victoria Island.

From what one saw during the fair, you people were overwhelmed. How would you explain this?

Before today we knew there is unemployment in the country, but believe you me; we underestimated the enormity of the problem. We had intention of providing for 500 people; but as you saw, we had over 1,800 people turning up for the job fair. And this is just based on the little information we pass-ed out there by words of mouth. You can therefore imagine what would have happened if we created more awareness for the event.

So put simply, there is a job crisis in the country and the government must, as a matter of urgency, address this national emergency with all seriousness; because failure to do so has its socio-economic consequences. Like I said at the beginning, government alone may not be able to solve the problem, and so I urge the private sector to compliment the efforts of government.

The venue of this job and career fair apparently has a history. Can you take us through it?

This place is called the Lagos Resource Centre and it’s got a very rich history, a history associated with the Catholic Church in Nigeria. Hitherto, this place housed the Papal Nuncio in Nigeria; that is, the abode of the Pope’s representative in Nigeria. But when embassies and diplomatic missions moved to Abuja, the place became vacant and the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos bought it over from the Vatican. The place has now been turned to a place where people can come for spiritual retreat and business meetings.