5th February, 2016
Kazeem Ugbodaga
The Lagos State Government has charged pilgrims who returned from pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Israel to imbibe the godly virtue they learnt from the holy land for the development of the state and the nation.
The government said that Christians could make the state a better place to live in if they internalize courteous disposition and spirit of statesmanship similar to what obtains in other nations of the world.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Mrs. Grace Oladimeji, said this during the thanksgiving service for Year 2015 pilgrims to the Holy Land at the Chapel of Christ The Light, Alausa, Ikeja, in Lagos, southwest Nigeria.
The Permanent Secretary wondered why Nigerians displayed courteous dispositions in developed countries of the world but fail to replicate same here in their own country.
Oladimeji advised the year 2015 pilgrims to continue with the godly virtues and orderliness displayed while in the Holy Land, stressing that they could make the state a better place for everyone if they continued with such dispositions.
“Your neighbours, friends, associates and everyone who knows that you have been to the Holy Land expect some level of spiritual and moral decency from you and as such, you must not disappoint them, be a model for them.
“If laws and regulations could be obeyed in other countries, same decorum and courtesy should be extended to our own land as well. We are not different from them in anyway,” she said.
She assured intending pilgrims across the state that the state government would continue to ensure a hitch-free pilgrimage in subsequent exercise.
The Chairman of the State Christian Pilgrims Welfare Board, Bishop Olusola Ore, expressed optimism that with the determination of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to make the state more tourism-driven, tourists and adventurers would soon make the state a place of choice in tourism.
A zonal pastor of The Redeem Christian Church of God, Pastor Tunde Onatuga, in his message at the event charged the participants to trust God to bring about better days in whatever they are passing through at present.
He said that the promise of God for restoration applied to every believer who will not relent in trusting God regardless of their challenges or situation.
The Executive Secretary of the Board, Olayinka Oye-Bamgbose, said that the attitude of disobedience to rules and regulations in the country is aided by the attitude of the citizenry who encouraged others to flout laid down rules, while calling for attitudinal change and civility among Lagosians.