Voter Registration: Knights Of St. John Urge Catholics To Register
ABUJA, Jan 23, (THEWILL) - Despite the problems facing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the on-going voters’ registration, a Catholic Church organisation, the Knights of St, John International (KSJI) has called on Catholics and all Christians to do all within their power to be registered for the April general elections.
In a press statement dated Friday 21/1/2011, Dr. Nwachukwu N.N. Nwanesi, the Grand President of the Abuja Grand Commandery, called on “members of the KSJI, their families, friends Catholics and Christians all across Nigeria to see it as a civic duty to actively participate in the nationwide Voters Registration exercise, since voters cards are the only instrument of voting credible candidates of their choice into power.”
Beyond that, he said “we must take Nigeria back to God by voting in God-fearing good leaders who will see public service as an avenue to uplift the standard of living in the country and entrench justice and fare play in all things and at all times”.
Dr. Nwanesi, who holds the rank of a Brigadier- General in the KSJI, a religious, military and social order of the Catholic Church, made the call during the Annual General Meeting of the Abuja Grand Commandery, comprising Abuja, Kogi and Benue states. At the AGM which held recently at the Christ the King Church, Kubwa, an Abuja suburb, Nwanesi called on KSJI members to always remember that they must serve God, the church and humanity with their three Ts – talent, time and treasure – and so they must improve on KSJI’s charitable works which amounted to several millions of Naira last year and serve as the first line of support for the church through loyalty and defence of the church hierarchy – from the Pope to the parish priests.
The statement signed by Secretary of the Abuja Grand Commandery, Mr. Remi Martin Nwafor, a Colonel in the order, condemned the attacks on the Catholic Church and His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, as the handiwork of evil-minded people, and backed the Catholic Church that total abstinence from illicit sex and not condom use, can check the HIV-AIDS scourge. The communiqué also condemned lesbianism, homosexualism and prostitution as immoral. On the political scene, it called on politicians to eschew violence in their campaigns, condemned violence, killings and spate of bombings in various parts of the country.
Recalling KSJI’s special place in the Catholic Church and the special role Diocesan Bishops and Parish Priests play in the order, the statement stressed the order’s backing for the Catholic Bishops Conference and their stand on issues. It also thanked the Supreme Spiritual Director of the KSJI in Nigeria, Rev, Fr. (DR) Raph Madu, who holds the rank of a Brigadier-General, for saying the mass that opened the AGM, and presenting a wonderful homily, “You are the Salt of the Earth”.