THE Metro Assistant Chaplain of the Order of Knights of St Mulumba Nigeria, Reverend Fr. Kenneth Mereh, has implored the newly elected executive officers of Knights of St. Mulumba (KSM) to be good followers of Jesus Christ and the church. He said the executive members should know that their election was made possible by God’s grace and not by their own strength or power. In his homily, Mereh who celebrated the first mass for the year with the Lagos Metro Chaplain/celebrant, Very Reverend Fr. Emmanuel Ayeni recently at St Leo Catholic Church, Ikeja, Lagos, admonished the KSM officers to allow Jesus Christ lead them in their new assignment.
He described Jesus Christ as the perfect leader and urged them to follow His instructions, adding that the incoming officers should see their election as a call to serve God, the church and members that through their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Assuring them that everything will definitely work according to God’s plan, he cited St Anthony Great of Egypt (Anthony of Padua), who sold his possessions and distributed the proceeds to the poor and went into the desert in fellowship of Jesus Christ.

“The beautiful thing about leadership is that, to be a good leader, you must be a good follower. You must listen and obey instructions, especially on this day that we remember St Anthony Great of Egypt, Anthony of Padua. Today, we remember him as a leader,” Mereh said.

Congratulating his successor, Sir Steve Adehi and his team, the outgoing Supreme Knight of the Order of the Knights of St. Mulumba Nigeria, and Deputy International President of International Alliance of Catholic Knights, Sir Charles Mbelede, who described his tenure as fruitful and progressive, wished the incoming executives a hitch-free, progressive and fruitful tenure. He urged them to think, plan and achieve things together.

Commenting on the nation’s security architecture, Mbelede described it as near collapse situation, saying that government should think progressively and optimise the new tax law, make it stress-free for Nigerians.

The current Supreme Knight of the Order of the Knights of St. Mulumba Nigeria and President of the Association of Papal Knights and Medalists of Nigeria, Steve Adehi, in a chat with journalists, assured Nigerians that his administration would be different from what it used to be, promising that his team would concentrate on two major areas; discipline in the Order and members investments.

Adehi, who will pilot the ship for four years, called on knights to give their very best and represent the Catholic Church well wherever they go.

According to him, “a Catholic knight is expected to do so much and if you are not well informed you would not know what is expected of you. And it is for this lack of knowledge that we have indiscipline among some knights.”
Lamenting a recent event whereby a Knight of the Order misbehaved and was everywhere on the Internet, the Worthy Supreme condemned such act of indiscipline and blamed it on lack of knowledge.

“Your work as a knight is selfless service to the church and not to ask for reward on earth,” he said.
He disclosed that his team has step up different committees to look into investments with the aim of straightening things.

“I can assure you our tenureis going to be impactful. We shall provide boreholes for communities and extend hand help to the education sector. There are so many dilapidated schools around us and so many hospitals that need assistance. We want to see how we can get enough funds to be able to go into those areas. We arenot ruling out setting up a model school for people to emulate.

On how the body can contribute in addressing the issue of insecurity problems in Nigeria, Adehi said his administration had set up a committee to look into that.
Adehi, who noted that the economy is doing well only on paper and not reflecting on individuals, said, “part of our call to government is to ensure that dividend of democracy and the improvement on the economy spread down to the common man on the streets because right now the common man is not feeling it.

Another executive officer, the current Lagos Metro Grand Knight, Godwin NosaEhigiator, who described his election as a call for service, said, “I just see that this is God’s time for me to be the Metro Grand Knight. For me it is not just the title, but also a call to service. I do not expect that as a member of the Order somebody would need to tell you to go and pay your dues or attend meetings scheduled to hold at 9:00a.m. Our metro of the future is a metro that expects everybody to do the right thing at the right time without anybody pursuing you about to do what you’re supposed to do.”

The Lagos Metro Grand Knight whose agenda is to expand development beyond Archdiocese of Lagos to Dioceses of Ijebu Ode and Abeokuta, added: “I believe we have been first in contributing our supreme levies and other things, but as a body I cannot say this is what Lagos Metro had done for itself. No building, no bus that we can call our own, and yet, we are the one carrying the burden of the Supreme Council. Now, we are going to also think inward. We will do an endowment fund and see how we can raise money to start something for our own. If we are able to complete it in four years good, but if we are not able we will continue. The way it is, I think we are lagging behind in terms of infrastructure.”