Church trains pastors on war against corruption

The Assistant General Overseer, Palace of Christian Assembly, Dr. Ejiro Joyce-Igbuzor has urged Nigerians to shun corruption in its entirety.

She also charged Christians to emulate Christ’s way of life and live a corrupt-free life.

The church through its social arm, a non-governmental organisation called “Priests Peace and Justice Initiative organised a three-day capacity building on Christianity /corruption and launched “the Shun Corruption Project” in Lagos, recently.

Speaking to The Guardian Igbuzor explained that the programme was sponsored by MacArthur Foundation with a view to fighting corruption in Nigeria.

He said pastors from different Pentecostal Churches came together and were trained and after that, they were expected to go back and train others.

“Mac Arthur Foundation has given money to Palace of Christian Assembly to train Pentecostal Pastors and their constituencies.

It has also given money to Catholics and other organisations to train traditional churches. It also gave money to Islamic groups and not only Christians.

So, what we have done was to train trainers who would go and train others. There is going to be advocacy and campaign, which at the end of the day would be vanguard against corruption,” she said.

She also noted that the training also addressed Christians on the need for them to get their voter’s cards and ensure that they vote for credible candidates during the forthcoming general elections.

The Project Manager, ‘Shun Corruption Project’ Paul Yao Ahiave urged President Muhammadu Buhari to spur a Housing Occupancy Audit beginning from the Federal Capital Territory to enhance an effective system of Beneficial Ownership in the Property Sector with a Property Verification Number (PVN) based on the success recorded with the operation of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) to fight corruption.

“As reported in the civil society open letter to African leaders demanding end of corruption, roughly half of the respondents to the most recent Afro-barometer survey report have little or no trust in legislative bodies, courts, police, national electoral commissions and opposition parties.

Roughly two-thirds believe their government is doing a poor job of improving people’s living condition,” he said.