The Parish Priest of St. Francis Catholic Church, Ekehuan Road, Benin, Rev. Fr. Andrew Obinyan, has called on politicians to intensify efforts in providing social welfare programmes that would directly impact on the citizens and guarantee a decent standard of living in the state.

By Jethro Ibileke 

The Parish Priest of St. Francis Catholic Church, Ekehuan Road, Benin, Rev. Fr. Andrew Obinyan, has called on politicians to intensify efforts in providing social welfare programmes that would directly impact on the citizens and guarantee a decent standard of living in the state.

He made the call shortly after distributing welfare packages, including cash, clothes and food items to widows and indigent parishioners as part of his customary empowerment programme.

He said the effort was to ensure that the windows and indigent parishioners were living a comfortable life.

The Catholic Priest who noted with pain the growing and life-wrenching poverty, hunger and misery in the land, warned that God hears the cry of the poor.

He therefore advised leaders and government at all levels not to focus only on physical infrastructure, but ensure a corresponding investment in poverty reduction and youth empowerment.

According to him, honourable politicians, let the masses feed on your promises, not with a sense of foreboding but a sense of trust. God hears the cry of the poor.

“Government needs to build and revamp ailing industries in agriculture, textile, health, housing, recreation, waste management and recycling to boost job opportunities.

“Good governance also encompasses policies that favour food security and farmers’ interest.

“Some politicians and their next generation will live in luxury and remain unruffled by the detestable waters of poverty, yet they must not neglect to see the moral and political agency of the poor and jobless, especially the youth.

“The unfortunate part of the imbroglio is the naive understanding and interpretation of good governance as simply building roads, bridges and paying monthly wages for labour or services rendered according to contract.

“Nay, not so, that is not good governance in its fulIness,” he said.