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N30,000 new minimum wage too small, says clergyman

By Charles Ogugbuaja (Owerri), Abiodun Fagbemi (Ilorin) and Akin Alofetekun (Minna)
06 May 2019   |   3:03 am
The Bishop of Egbu Diocese of Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Owerri North, Imo State, Geoffrey Okorafor, has condemned the N30,000 new minimum wage, describing it as "too small" and incapable of solving monthly basic needs of the workers. The cleric said this at the weekend during a special church service at the Cathedral Church…

Rev. Geoffrey Enyinnaya Okorafor

The Bishop of Egbu Diocese of Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Owerri North, Imo State, Geoffrey Okorafor, has condemned the N30,000 new minimum wage, describing it as “too small” and incapable of solving monthly basic needs of the workers.

The cleric said this at the weekend during a special church service at the Cathedral Church of All Saints, Egbu, Owerri North, Imo State, to mark the seventh anniversary of his episcopacy enthronement, describing an average Nigerian worker as “tireless and hardworking” to earn a paltry sum.

He, therefore, urged employers at all levels not to delay in implementing the said amount.

Also, in his lecture to mark the event, Prof. Uchefula U. Chukwumaeze of the Faculty of Law, Imo State University, Owerri, urged the laity of the church not to shy away from partisan politics.

Chukwumaeze, in the lecture titled ”The Anglican Church and Nation Building in Nigeria”, opined that “politics has entered into the church and the church has entered into politics.”

He, therefore, urged the people to participate actively in politics to correct anomalies in the land.

In another development, the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Offa Diocese, Kwara State, has commenced geriatric care for the aged of the church as a way of providing for their basic needs.

According to the Bishop of the Diocese, Rt. Rev. Olusola Akanbi, yesterday at Offa during his opening charge to the delegates at the commencement of the second session of the seventh synod of the church, God’s injunction to the church to cater for the poor should not exclude the aged.

He said the church had few months ago constituted a welfare visitation committee dominated by medical experts across the diocese to draw up a blueprint that would effectively meet the needs of the elderly members of the churches in the diocese.

The team, after paying visitations to some of the aged, identified some of their basic challenges to include deterioration in health due to poverty which is preventing them assess to medication and loneliness, among others.

However, the Diocese of Minna (Anglican Communion) has decried the increasing role of money in the nation’s politics and urged politicians, particularly those seeking office, to fear God and work genuinely for the good of all.

This was contained in a communique issued at the end of the second session of the 10th synod of the diocese held at St. Andrew’s Church, Minna.

“Primitive wealth accumulation may bring them pleasure and comfort but they should be rest assured that such wealth will not attract the blessings of God,” the communique said.

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