Esther Oluku
The parish priest of Holy Family Catholic Church, Life Camp, Abuja, Rev. Father Anthony Olaniyan (SMA), has said that the family unit is crucial to good leadership.
Olaniyan, who made the statement while emphasising the significant achievement the church had made, maintained that the family represents the minutest level of the society, and as such, products of families determine both the quality of members of the society, as well as leaders that rule such people.
“If we have bad image as a nation, that means that there is something faulty with the formative years and processes of our families. We should do everything possible to make our families work.
“It is from families that leaders emerge. It is from families we get thieves and it is from families that we get achievers. This is the minutest form of the society or organisation. So if there is any message it should be that we must make every effort to make our families work”, he said.
He appealed to young Nigerians to look at all the efforts of the past leaders and to as much as possible not to allow the family to fail.
“We want our mothers to be patient to make sure that our families work. We want our children to be responsible because whenever the family is good, our churches are good, our society is good and our nation is better for it,” he added.
The church’s silver jubilee which is scheduled for third of November, 2019, Olaniyan said, is worthy of celebration as it is a milestone that the parish has attained.
“In these years of struggle we have been able to come this far. We’ve been able to build ourselves into formidable body of Christians who love one another. Despite our differences and challenges, we’ve been able to stay together.
“If we view it in that way we have come of age as a parish. We are as old as the Archdiocese. It’s a very beautiful thing to celebrate. We should go all out to mark this milestone in our life as a parish and 25 years as a family” he said.
He praised the pioneer members of the church who he acknowledged sacrificed lots to build the church, particularly the various SMA priests that provided leadership.
Singling out the first Parish Priest of the Church, Reverend Father Tom Walsh (SMA) for praise, he said that the Walsh had shown himself as a very good father, a very good leader, of good character to the parish and those who came after him.
