The President, Nigerian Baptist Convention, Rev. Israel Akanji, says focusing more on the youths will reduce strange practices imbibed through migration for greener pastures in foreign countries.
Akanji said this at a news conference in Ibadan, ahead of on a 3-day programme for young people, tagged ARISE.
The programme is to hold at the Baptist International Convention Centre, Lufuwape Village, Klm. 53, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway from Sept. 6 to 9, 2023.
He lamented that strange practices that could threaten the hope of man in God were being imbibed by the youths through negative impacts of technology and increasing quest by the youths to migrate to greener pastures in search of opportunities.
“More than any time before, young people are blindly engrossed in departing their own countries in the pursuit of fake promises by many people who are out to exploit them.
“These young people, upon arrival in their “dream lands”, find themselves in regrettable circumstances, wishing they never left their home in the first place.
“Our young people arrive in countries where they experience moral bankruptcy in comparison to the home from which they are coming.
“The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) lifestyle, which has been foreign to our ways of life in Nigeria, is being introduced to our helpless youths abroad.
“Everything we are experiencing in our world today has made it a matter of emergency for us to focus our attention on our youths,” he said.
The Nigerian Baptist Convention also harped on the need to ginger the youths to take up the tasks of promoting Christian ethics, values and the legacies that were built over the years rather than leave them to indulge in sinful and unethical practices that negate godly lifestyles.
The Director, Youth and Student Ministry, Rev. Olawuyi James, and other directors of the convention were in attendance at the press conference.
