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By Isaac Ngumah
Founder of Jesus Praise Evangelical Ministry, Dr. Femi Lanre Oke has pleaded with President Bola Tinubu to think outside the box and encourage policies to make his reform programmes have a human face.
He made the appeal in a chat with Church Times on Saturday, January 25.
According to the cleric, the president has done a lot in revamping the economy and making the country stand on sound footing.
He however noted that the reforms have no human face yet. “That is the area the government has to work on. It is not enough to have good intentions; people must be carried along and the policies must have some human face.”
Oke who is a teacher and life coach stated for instance that the tax reform bill is a good development because it encourages equality from derivations from different states so that those who generate the Income can benefit more from it.”
But beyond the tax reform and some other reform programmes like the subsidy removal, Oke urged President Tinubu “to think outside the box and carry out measures to help cushion the effects of these policies. We know Nigeria will ultimately benefit from the policies, but there must be some stopgap measures to make people not feel the pain unduly.”
He also called for patience on the part of Nigerians. “ People should be patient with the government on the reform programmes. People however need some education. The National Orientation Agency and other government agencies need to do a thorough education and enlightenment on the benefits of the tax reform bills and how they will affect the development of the nation because the tax reform bills will enable the state to also generate Income rather than depend on the federal government allocations.”
He noted that the security situation in the country has improved over time adding however that there is a need to intensify efforts to make terrorism history in Nigeria
On his ministry, he said, “We have ministers conferences to equip the ministers of God who work in the vineyard of God to become strong and we are also moving from one state to another, encouraging ministers empowering them and also widows through our outreach and also skill acquisitions for them and the less privileged. We have projects for the prisons and the hospitals too. We are having outreaches, crusades and operations feed the poor, we have evangelism that we do every week, we have medical outreaches, etc.”
He said the Church over the years has “built a value system and built the right value in the heart of men so that people can go into the society and behave the normal way. They should love their neighbours as themself and love them as Christ loves them and do the right thing because the value system is planted in their heart.”
