1st January, 2015
Kazeem Ugbodaga
President, Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor has asked Nigerians to brace up for the challenges ahead in 2015, saying that they must remain unwavering in their faith.
In his New Year message, Oritsejafor said despite the daunting challenges in 2014, Nigerians were able to weather the storm and have emerged even stronger and could be counted among people of strong character and unwavering faith.
“I urge all Nigerians, especially Christian faithful to brace up for the challenges ahead of us both as individuals and as a nation. As we reflect on the events of the past year and look forward to the times ahead, I want us to concentrate on the issue of overcoming. In this light, it is important to emphasize the postulate that all challenges are timely, and they are not accidental.
“God tests us in such ways to enable us realize His greatness. You cannot realize the real value of your life if you have not compared it to something. God sends us trials so that we could understand the deepness of His goodwill and love. No one is alone until he has his faith.
According to him, “there is no sense in crying over the trouble -the best way out is always through, you should not concentrate on your problems, but rather on the way how to solve them. Look forward, because life is beautiful, and God created it for us.”
He said he had dwelt on these words of encouragement because he wanted all Nigerians to approach this New Year with a renewed sense of vigour and the understanding that all must work for the kind of society that they desire to have, saying that “if we want peace and prosperity, then we must work for it and not lament over the challenges.”
The CAN president said all these would not be possible if Nigerians continued to stay away from God or desist from doing His will in small areas of jurisdiction, urging that “we must therefore approach everything in this year, first of all by inviting God’s presence to lead that particular venture and secondly by approaching it with a positive mind. That is the spirit that will lead Nigeria to the promise land.”
“Nigerians must learn to support their leaders in prayers and physical support in this New Year and above all things we must all exhibit love and sacrifice for ourselves and our nation in our collective quest of a better Nigeria beginning from 2015. Many have alluded to the fact that the 2015 general elections would throw Nigeria into chaos but as a man of faith I see the election as Nigeria’s turning point.
“Leaders must be wise and courageous in their decisions in this coming year because as it has already been known the challenges are becoming multifaceted from insecurity to crashing oil prices and many others. But I see a lot of positives and opportunities in the midst of these challenges and that is what I want Nigerians to absorb in their hearts; the year 2015 may seem quite challenging for Nigeria but it is one that equally holds a lot of hope and promise that could lead to the fulfillment that we have all yearned for,” he added.
Oritsejafor added that he disagreed with the wide spread projections about 2015 whether in terms of security, infrastructure, politics and the economy, saying he believed that 2015 might just be that year in which Nigeria’s socio-economic revolution will be actualized.
In his New Year message, the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Most Rev. Dr. Alfred Adewale Martins called on Nigerians to draw nearer to their creator in the New Year 2015, even as he enjoined them to commit themselves to the unity and peaceful co-existence of the country.
In the message made available through the Director of Social Communications, Msgr. Gabriel Osu, Martins insisted that most of the challenges plaguing the nation can be overcome through prayer, selflessness and tolerance of one another.
According to him, no nation can excel without the help of God. “Any nation that drives God to the background is only toying with doom. For us to move forward as a nation, we must bring God to the front burner this New Year, so that His spirit of love, peace and joy can permeate in our hearts and in the core of our nationhood.”
Speaking on the forthcoming general election, the prelate urged Nigerians to be alive to their civic responsibilities by casting their votes in favour of only credible candidates with impeccable integrity, stressing that they must be ready to monitor and defend their votes at all cost in order to ensure that only credible candidates are elected into positions of authority.
“The year 2015 offers us as a nation another opportunity to move forward democratically. We must ensure politics of bitterness and acrimony. Most importantly, we cannot just fold our hands and expect manna to come down from heaven. We must be ready to defend our mandates so that the wrong people do not steal our votes. For the political class, I urge them to shun violence and allow the wishes of the people to prevail. With the help of God, we shall succeed.”