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By Dotun Ibiwoye

lagos—Human rights activist and lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), weekend challenged Pentecostal churches to contribute more to national development by investing in human capital development.

Falana compared the Pentecostal churches with the orthodox churches such as Catholic, Methodist, Baptist and Anglican, that built schools, educated and managed millions of Nigerians freely since colonial area till now.

He also urged Muslims to do more in education and the establishment of necessary facilities to have a safe and literate society in Nigeria.

Speaking in Lagos, at the launch of a book titled: ‘Empower by the Holy Spirit’ , and 70th birthday celebration of Apostle Michael Adebayo, Falana noted that even during the Obafemi Awolowo era, who placed a lot of emphasis on education, missionary schools were responsible for educating majority the people.

According to him: ‘’During Awolowo’s time, we all went to schools built by the missionary. The Catholics, the Methodist, the Anglicans and the Baptists were the ones establishing schools and educating people freely. No one asked for tithe. They also built hospitals and provided other basic amenities. This was done absolutely free. Later the community schools came.

‘’This is what has made the southwest of Nigeria to be the leader in education and some other sector. We all need to remind our Pentecostal churches that they all have a duty to build schools, educate the children and provide scholarship schemes. None of the pentecostal churches has done any of that, now that the government has abandoned the people.

‘’It is not a big issue for the pentecostal churches to educate the poor child on the street. By doing this, we can have a safer society. When we educate less privileged we can all sleep well. Our level of backwardness still affects us in several dimensions.”

The author of the book and celebrant, Apostle Adebayo, advised Nigerians to come closer to God and embrace humility in all aspects of their lives, even as he pleaded with the government to tackle corruption head-long to have a better society.

‘If the Nigerian doctors in the United Kingdom go on strike any day, the health sector will collapse in that country. When I went to the UK some years ago for medical check-up, I noticed that all the doctors that attended to me were Nigerians. The only thing that was not Nigerian in the hospital was the machine. This shows that Nigerians are brilliant, our only problem is leadership.”

He said: ‘’A late brother of mine once told me that the Bible was the only book that he did not read. He was a Christian and attended one of the orthodox churches. I said what? How can you say that you have not read the Bible? Those are the things that motivated me to write this book. This society glorifies wealth. We should start celebrating people with integrity. Money is not everything.”

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