… Approach the New Year with hope, open-mindedness – Archbishop Martins
… Nigerians should face the New Year with resilience – Bishop Ighele
…The church should look forward to expansion of the gospel – Bishop Anthony
As Nigerians continue to bask in the euphoria of the New Year, clerics have shared their optimism of a better country for the year 2025.
This optimism is however, hinged on the fact that Nigerians must make a sincere and honest reflection on the successes and failures in the past year both at the individual and collectively to work out ways of making 2025 a more fruitful year for all and sundry.
Alfred Adewale Martins, the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, said the New Year provides another opportunity for all Nigerians, leaders and the led, to reflect on the journey so far and project on how to make 2025 more purpose-driven for the citizens.
While felicitating with Nigerians in his 2025 New Year message for the privilege of witnessing another New Year, also commended Nigerians for their resilience in the face of the harsh economic climate that characterized the better part of 2024.
Martins invite Nigerians to approach the New Year with optimism and with open-mindedness, love and tolerance towards all peoples irrespective of their religion or ethnicity.
He further urged Nigerians to build on the successes of the outgoing year, learn the lessons that came with the challenges, and look forward to the future with hope and optimism.
The cleric also thanked God for keeping Nigeria as one despite the numerous challenges she has gone through.
“My appeal to Nigerians is that they should face the New Year with resilience. Things are tough and shall get tougher.
“I appeal to citizens not to fight themselves while struggling to survive. Instead, they should identify their areas of skill and educate themselves in the area of their God given ability,” Charles Ighele, general superintendent, Holy Spirit Mission, said.
He said that Nigerians should use their skills to work and must develop a spirit of contentment and at the same time have a God fearing ambition to rise in life.
“One of Nigeria’s major problems right from the period of military rule is that public primary and secondary schools are run in such a manner that over 95 per cent of our students are not intellectually, emotionally developed enough neither has the educational system polished them to become civilised citizens,” Ighele said.
Chidi Anthony, president, Pentecostal Ministers Forum (PMF) and founder, Kings in Christ Power Ministries International, said the Church must be sanitized.
According to him, PFM will focus more on organising seminars, lectures in helping to build members’ capacity and make the pastors know the importance of believing in God. “It is not compulsory that everybody must be a prophet.”
Anthony said further that there is also a need for people to understand that they cannot help God, rather they should allow God to do things on his own time and His own way.
“The church should be looking forward to expansion of the gospel, manifestation of the power of God, God’s intervention and direction in the leadership of the nation and for a more prayerful, powerfully fire-branded manifestation of the Lord to the happiness of the body of Christ,” Anthony said.
He said further that the Church should also call the attention of members to the role of politics in nation building. According to him, Christians should be actively involved in politics, and move away from the notion that politics is a dirty game
He said further that if politics is considered a dirty game, Christians should get involved to clean up the ecosystem. “We need to make it clean, we need to wash it. That is why we need to talk to the Church.
“The Bible says when the righteous is on the throne, the Bible says the people will rejoice. And so also, when the unrighteous are on the throne, the people will suffer. So, it is high time we are involved in politics.
“So, the vision of Pentecostal ministers’ forum for 2025 is to bring the body of Christ to know how important it is to be involved in politics. So that we can gather together and bring somebody that will help the nation. You and I know that people are suffering,” Anthony said.
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