The Archbishop of Lagos, Bishop Adewale Martins, on Saturday charged Nigerians from all walks of life to unite and work assiduously to build a peaceful and united country.
Martins made the call in a statement by the National Director of Social Communications, Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Fr. Mike Umoh, in Abuja.
He also called on the country’s leadership at all levels to be more proactive and sincere in tackling the numerous challenges facing the nation such as insecurity, corruption, economic downturn, ethnic agitations, unemployment, among others.
He warned that failure to do something urgently and address these problems could adversely affect national development.
Martins congratulated Christians and indeed Nigerians on the successful completion of the 40 days Lenten season; a period set aside to prepare them for the celebration of Easter, the most important Christian feast.
He urged Christians to allow the spiritual gains of the Lenten season to continue to take effect in their daily lives.
The prelate also stressed the need for Nigerians to continue to live in true brotherhood, adding that this could only be reinforced “when there is love, mutual respect and tolerance, care for human life and promotion of justice for all of God’s children as taught by Jesus Christ.’’
He further urged security agencies to do all possible to curb the activities of criminals and identify their sponsors in order to deal with insecurity.
“We give thanks to the Almighty God for yet another opportunity to celebrate the risen Lord during this Easter celebration despite the global pandemic.
”The fact that we are still among the living at this time is a privilege; it shows that God still has some special purpose for us as individuals and as a nation.
”Our prayer is that the Spirit of God may use us as instruments of peace and unity. Amen.
”These are indeed challenging times, and we cannot and should not remain complacent to the demands of the times.
”All of us, the leadership and the followership have a date with destiny; to build a country we all can be proud of,” he said.
Martins stressed that leaders need to work more assiduously toward offering good governance for which they were elected in the first instance.
According to him, they must show more resilience in their fight against insecurity and provide the enabling environment for all hardworking and progressive minded citizens to profit from their honest hard work without any form of harassment or intimidation.
”All criminals, be they bandits, kidnappers or herdsmen must be made to face the law. There should be no selective justice.”
Martins called on Nigerians to actively seek to hold their elected public officers accountable for good governance within the provision of the rule of law. (NAN)
