*As Dogara warns on family system collapse

From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has charged churches in the country to banish people of questionable means whose wealth do not match their income.

He gave the charge at the Aso Rock Chapel as the church celebrated this year’s Father’s Day.

“If the church says we will not accept you here or that we will expose you if you are stealing the resources of the country or stealing the resources of a private company or other establishment where you work, we would not have the type of problem that we have in this country.”

Quoting from Genesis 18:19, he urged fathers to emulate Abraham who adhered to God’s instruction to build generations of righteous men and women.

“I want to say that all of our leaders, the Christian leaders; the PFN and CAN, that it is the role of the church to build this nation. And the church has that role because God has said concerning us that we are the light of the world and we are the salt of the earth. That role is a very difficult role. We are not to teach the world how to be like the world but to teach the world how to be like our saviour, Jesus Christ.

“Every time we come to the church, we are told about giving, but we need to talk more about honesty. Just now His Eminence said Nigeria’s great problem is not an absence of prosperity but that we have enough for our needs but we don’t have enough for our greed. The greed of many is what has landed this country where it is today. Many who say the reason they steal is because they need to have an arsenal for future political experiment lie to themselves. It is greed.

“And if the church says you are not allowed to steal and we will ostracise the thieves in our midst when a man’s resource does not measure up to what he earns, then there woill be a change in attitude.

We have to hold people to account first in the church. A man of dubious means must first be told in the church, we will not allow this. If the church ostracises the thieves; if the church says we will not accept thieves here or we will ensure that we expose you, you are stealing the resources of our nation, you are stealing the resources of a private company or other establishments, then we will not have the kind of problems that we have in this country.”

Also, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, warned against the collapse of the family system in the country, urging the government to invest more in family.

He spoke with newsmen shortly after the service and said: “We should invest more, really as a nation, in fatherhood or in family. And when children are properly brought up, you will see that most of the resources we channel towards control of crime and so many other government programmes, there will be no need for them. Because we will have some kinds of transformation that only take place at the family level.

“Certain things cannot be done by the government like we cannot just outsource discipline in a home, the issue of imparting or instilling morality in the life of our citizens. Government certainly cannot do that; it is the role of the family. So when we celebrate fathers like this, we celebrate fatherhood, we emphasize on the importance of the family as a unit in bringing up those components of society.”