The Church Should Partner Government In Social Transformation – Amb. Godknows Igali

MICHAEL AKINOLA

The leading PDP governorship aspirant in Bayelsa State, Ambassador Godknows Boladei Igali, has charged the Church to continue to play the leading role as partner of the government in social transformation of the society.

Igali, a renowned diplomat, made the call on the occasion of the celebration of the 110th anniversary of St. Stephen’s Anglican Church in Amassoma, Bayelsa State.

While speaking as Chairman of the Launching of Fund Raising For The Building Of A New Church as part of the historical celebration, Amb. Igali noted that St. Stephen’s Church, Amassoma and many of its kind played the leading role in the social, educational and moral development of most of our communities and brought us to where we are.

According to him “we are what we are today as a people because the church was there and has never left us. Our first schools, our first educated people, our first our first hospitals and the overall moral foundation of the society are a product of the church.

Speaking further specifically on his own life and connection with the church in Amassoma, he went down memory lane to disclose to the teeming worshipers which included the Bishop of Niger Delta West (Anglican Communion) Rt. Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Oko-Jaja and cream of the Bayelsa society, that he was a child raised by St Stephen Church, Amassoma from the tender age of 3 years. He disclosed that in the early 1960s his parents who had decided to travel to United Kingdom for further studies left him and his other two older siblings in the foster care of the church then pastored by Rev. Stephen Ambaiowei and his wife Mrs. Phoebe Ambaiowei for ten years. He stated “As the youngest child of this highly devoted and itinerant missionary couple, I grew up for 10 years glued to the Church and remains so till date. Coincidentally both my father Rev. Ambaiowei and my mother, Mama Phoebe were both posthumously honoured at this event and I thank you all for this”.

The top diplomat now turned politician expressed the hope that St. Stephen Church, Amassoma will continue to provide the needed spiritual and moral foundation for the rapidly expanding population growth of the town. He reiterated that “if God grants me the opportunity to lead our people as Governor come 3rd September and 16 November, the Church and the Christian faith which are now a central place in our heritage as Ijaw people will be the spiritual pivot on which our development will revolve.”