Not gonna copy some crap from google but my ans is purely from my point of view

Lightining network from what i have heard was a solution to the slow transaction speed and high fees , though even the speed has increased and fees has gone significantly low you can't really call bitcoin a lightning network. The lightining original was found in ltc roadmap it was going to be implemented but don't know why the delay

Lightining network allows us to transfer coins with faster confirmation like we saw in ripple , xlm and many other coins
It's role is just enhancing user experience while they are transferring funds
Like i said above facts are just told from what i know even if it's wrong i would be happy to learn more about it

Edit: Just saw what darkstar posted on your campaign thread : https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/7pwna9/lightning_network_megathread/ all those who don't want to learn but just behind merits refer this