…Our actions should reflect the character of Christ– Primate Udofia
… Nigeria needs to be resurrected; needs a ‘Truth Commission’ – Bishop Ighele
As Christians across the world mark the resurrection of Jesus Christ today, being Easter Sunday, clerics across the country have urged Nigerians to leverage the celebration to intensify prayers for Nigeria, and amplify national unity by embracing peace.
The clerics said that Easter was a time of sober reflection that calls to mind the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross of Calvary. They said that Christians and by extension Nigerians, across the country must show love to one another in demonstration of the depth of love exhibited by Jesus Christ.
“Easter is a new life that Jesus brought to the world through His death and resurrection. And that new life is an indication that there is nothing impossible for God to do,” Adewale Martins, Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, during the Chrism Mass held at the Holy Cross Cathedral, Lagos.
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According to him, Jesus Christ brought a new life to mankind through Easter.
“If Jesus can rise from the dead, it means everything that is dead in our lives either as individuals or as a nation, can also be restored and this is a message of hope we should begin to allow ourselves to take in.
“But it is also a challenge to those who have the responsibility of ruling us to do all that they need to do in order to ensure that the resurrection of Christ takes its effect in the lives of his people,” Martins said.
Emmanuel Udofia, former Primate of the African Church, said Easter demonstrates to the world the sacrificial love that God has for humanity. “And what that teaches us is that we should love anybody unconditionally, because when Jesus Christ came to die for us, he died to redeem us from sin.”
He said everybody across the world celebrates Easter because it demonstrates God’s love to humanity, which led to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. “Therefore, we should demonstrate the character of God, which is the character of love. Anybody who loves can never hate at the same time. Anybody who loves can never kill.”
Primate said that the incessant killings across the country are as a result of the hatred Nigerians have towards one another. “Anybody who loves can never say any evil things or bad things against each other because love covers a multitude of sins. Where there’s love, there’s forgiveness.
“Where there’s love, there’s everything that can build up life; that can build up a community. So, we are experiencing every kind of disaster or illness in Nigeria because we don’t love one another,” Udofia said.
Lekan Otufodunrin, president, Journalist for Christ, said Easter offers an opportunity for the Nigerian Christian community to lead by example. He said church leaders should let their followers know about the importance of being good citizens.
“So, just to add that specifically, the things they can do is to also let the people know about how to be good citizens, how they should abide by rules and regulation, how they should show that they are really Christians by the things they do.
“So, they should remind them that it’s a shame when sometimes people are arrested for crime and they are associated with one church or the other; they are said to be pastors. So, it’s important to really, really show that they are the light of the world by the kind of thing they do,” he said.
According to Otufodunrin, Christianity goes beyond mere public display of faith, rather by the act and actions of the people which will really help the country to grow. “And if the country grows, it’s for the benefit of all of us who all benefit from it.
“We are praying for prosperity and that will happen when the right policies are done, when people are not defrauding the people, they work for; when people exhibit righteousness in everything they do,” he said.
Charles Ighele, general superintendent, Holy Spirit Mission, in his Easter message to Nigerians said that Nigeria needed to be resurrected. He appealed to the political leaders of the country to set up a ‘Truth Commission’ that should look at how the country got to its current level of poverty.
Ighele said that there was a need for the political class to prove how Nigeria got to its current level of lawlessness, moral, educational and religious decadence and must suggest how the country can come out of the dead.
“My Easter message is to call for all genuine stakeholders in ‘Project Nigeria’ to meet and ask ourselves these questions: Why did Nigeria get to the low level it is today to the extent that Nigerians are now migrating to Ghana in huge numbers?
“How did we get to this low level? What can be done to get Nigerians to be properly educated and civilised into a world power where they have values such as honesty, dignity of labour, love for country and fellow humans and so on?”
Chidi Anthony, president, Pentecostal Ministers Forum (PMF) and presiding bishop, Kings in Christ Power Ministry, urged Nigerian Christians to use this year’s Easter celebration to intensify and amplify national unity by embracing peace and fostering the spirit of love and togetherness which the Christian religion has always advocated for.
He said that Christianity is a religion of peace and that Christians should use the Easter celebration to assert this to the entire nation “Easter is a sacred celebration because it marks the remembrance of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, he came to pay the ultimate price for the redemption of our sins, Christians are supposed to be sober during this period,” Anthony said.
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He also urged the Christian community in Nigeria to use the Easter celebration as a means of alleviating poverty, and to assuage the current tension in the country by adhering strictly to the principles of reconciliation.
He said Christians should show love by giving palliatives, money and other things to support the vulnerable within the society. According to him, supporting people will help to alleviate the sufferings and hardship in the country and will also help to foster the unity of the country.
“Easter should be seen as a period of national reconciliation because Christianity preaches peace and we must portray that as Christians, this will definitely help to build a better and indivisible nation,” Anthony said.
