The Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), has called on Nigerians not to be dampened by the harrowing experience currently bedeviling the country, as the birth of Jesus Christ that is being celebrated around the world, represents hope peace and joy for mankind.
The two Christian organisations in separate statement signed by Francis Wale Oke, President of the PFN, and Samson Ayokunle, the president of CAN, and co-chairman, Nigeria Inter Religious Council (NIREC), rejoiced with the Christian community in Nigeria and across the world on the celebration of the birth of the Saviour.
“My message to all Nigerians is to remain hopeful in Christ Jesus and rejoice in hope no matter what the situation we are passing through may be. Our Father God can turn all situations around in Christ Jesus because as God, he can do all things. He is our ‘Way maker’ and he would make way for us in the name of Jesus,” said Ayokunle in his Christmas message to Nigerians.
According to him, Nigerians should embrace one another through the love of Christ irrespective of religious, ethnic and political differences. He therefore urged that people should be reconciled to God and to one another. “Let all the killings, the kidnapping of our fellow brothers and sisters and all other acts of wickedness stop because God is going to judge these acts on the Day of Judgment,” Ayokunle said.
The CAN president also pleaded with those in government to use their power and influence to bring relief and joy to the citizens of the country. Ayokunle also urged that measures should be taken to reduce the high cost of things in the market and that the enabling environment be created for employment of the youth who he said are roaming the streets having no job.
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“It is the good you have done now that people will remember tomorrow. Please, let us lessen the pains of Nigerians by paying more attention to their well-being in the prompt payment of workers’ salaries and pensions to the pensioners,” stated Ayokunle.
The PFN president, Wale Oke on his part counseled that the birth of Jesus Christ offers an opportunity to the people for them to commit their ways to God and be truthful in their earthly service to humanity. Oke, who is also the President of The Sword of the Spirit Ministries, gave the encouragement in his Christmas and New Year message made available to newsmen through his media office.
“This season which celebrates the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ, represents hope and joy for all the people of the earth. So, regardless of the situation we find ourselves in, this opportunity given to you and I on a silver platter, shows that we should be more than grateful by serving Him, the Almighty, with everything in us,” Oke said.
The Cleric also called on the authorities in the country to, in the spirit of the season which according to him calls for sober reflections, double up efforts in confronting the challenges facing the country. “Our government at all levels should continue to work relentlessly towards making sure that our security, economic and political challenges, among others, are turned around for the good of the country and its people. Our economy should be knocked into shape by revamping it so as to bring down, high cost of living in the land,” Oke said.
On the coming year, 2022, Oke assured that it would be filled with abundant blessings and joy for the nation and its people, particularly those who key into the programmes of God, stressing, “Though 2022 will be a year of abundant joy, this will however be for those who totally commit their ways to God by being obedient to His ordinances. We must all endeavor to serve God in truth and in spirit.”
