The parish priest of St. Francis Catholic Church Ekewan road, Benin, Rev.Fr Andrew Obinyan has gifted money, clothes, and food items to penniless parishioners and widows as part of his customary empowerment programme.

After the distribution of the welfare packages to mark the Easter celebration, the parish priest adviced the enormous congregation at St. Francis Church ground.

Obinyan, stated that this effort was to make sure that the widows and indigent parishioners are living a comfortable life.

He appealed to the politicians to increase more efforts in providing social welfare programmes that would impact directly on the citizens and guarantee a decent standard of living in the state

The parish priest noted that with the  growing pain and life wrenching poverty; hunger and misery in the land,  will continue to inflict more handship to the as he said that God hears the cry of the poor.

He further urged leaders and governments at all levels not to concentrate only on physical infrastructure, but to ensure corresponding investment in poverty reduction and youth empowerment.

He enthused, “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 level of poverty.

“They must not neglect the poor and the 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 by contractors.

“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”.