President Goodluck Jonathan has said that
Nigeria does not belong to any politician or
any group of politician.
He spoke Wednesday at the Diocese of Abuja,
The Cathedral Church of the Advent in
Lifecamp, Abuja, where he attended his
Christmas day church service along with his
family members and some senior government
officials.
Even as he did not mention the name of the
former President Olusegun Obasanjo in his
speech, he referred to those making
statements and writing open letters they ought
not to write.
Obasanjo had in a December 2 nd , 2013
written an open letter to the President in
which he made weighty allegations against
Jonathan and his administration.
Jonathan Wednesday said: “For us at this
time especially we the politicians that we
think we own this country begin to think about
next election and doing what we ought not to
do, making statement we ought not to make,
writing letters we suppose not to write.”
“I call on clergymen and statesmen who really
own this country because this country belongs
to our statesmen, traditional rulers, religious
leaders, our men, our women, our youth.
Nigeria does not belong to any politician or
group of politicians. So we continue to urge
you to pray for this country.”
On terrorism, he said: “The primate mentioned
number of issues that deal with a number of
nations that deals with crisis. For those who
know about terrorism, countries that are
infested with terror will hardly get out of it. If
you look at country like Pakistan, we even go
to Pakistan to train our soldiers, in some parts
of Pakistan as we are talking now there
appears to be no government. So this country
could have been worse.”
“Look at the incidences in Abuja, even the
police headquarters was boomed, the UN
building right here in the seat of government,
may be the next target would have been State
House. So we have to thank God that we have
been able to bring it to a reasonable level,
though we are far from getting over. There are
a lot of challenges but we have to thank God.”
He went on: “Primate said if it were to be like
Syria, what would we have done? Look at
South Sudan they were part of Sudan and they
felt that they were being dominated, they have
resources, there is oil in part of South Sudan,
they carried arms against the state, finally the
whole world through the UN liberated them. In
fact within this week we will be going for
security council meeting under the AU. My
envoy just came back on Sunday from where
he had conversation with them on how do we
stop this madness.”
“So we have to thank God even though we still
have this security challenges in our country at
least we are reasonably better.”
“In terms of Nigeria having crisis, the primate
was mentioning can Ghana accommodate us,
can Sierra Leone accommodate us. I was just
laughing because even now Nigerians in these
countries, the people are not even
comfortable, we don’t have crisis but from
Cameroon to Senegal, Nigerians are
everywhere. If not for political and diplomatic
reasons they would have even asked some of
them to leave. Then assuming we have crisis,
what would be the state, where will you go? Is
it the Atlantic Ocean? So I urge you to
continue to pray.”
“I also thank the religious leaders of this
country, they have been praying and I believe
God has been hearing our prayers. We will do
our best within the period that God has asked
us to occupy the positions we are occupying.”
He stated ]
Delivering the sermon entitled ‘Peace and Joy,
the Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh noted that the
first coming of Jesus Christ brought peace and
joy but that it will only be full at His second
coming.
According to him no part of the world is
enjoying total peace as he urged Nigerians to
continue to thank God for not making
Nigeria’s situation worse like other countries.
Quoting scriptures from Luke 2: 10, Isaiah 9:
n6, Galatians 3: 28, 2 nd Corinthians 5: 18,
John 14: 27 and Matthew 5: 9, he urged
Nigerians to continue to be a source of joy to
themselves, their neighbours and the whole
world.
He said: “But we have challenges, how can
you be talking of peace and joy to people in
Syria, DRC, Southern Sudan, Middle East,
Egypt, Indonesia and Ukraine. Will they
understand? How do you explain joy to
somebody who is bed ridden?
These are the
issues frost rating peace.”
Blaming the western world for these crises, he
said: “The western world sell these arms to
other part of the globe and are still talking
about peace. The money that people steal,
they take it outside and they receive it and
turn back to say these people are bad.”
“Only God can give us peace and joy because
man has so much complicated himself. If you
have three good stories that give you joy, you
are likely to have six stories that will upset
you.”
He also urged Nigerians to pray against
agents of darkness who are thirsting for
blood.
Nigerians, he said, have no choice than to
continue praying for peace as they have no
other place to go.
“Nigerians ought to be grateful to God and live
responsibly. Do not join anybody to cause
trouble. If we follow life diligently, Nigeria will
blossom, your lives will blossom. Refugees are
not the happiest of people, don’t make
yourself a refugee.” He pleaded.
The First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan read
the Old Testament lesson from Isaiah 9: 2, 6
and 7 while President Jonathan read the
Epistle from Hebrew 1: 1 to 12.
Among those who attended the service
included the Minister of State (FCT),
Olajumoke Akinjide, Minister of Information,
Labaran Maku, Minister of Police Affairs,
Called Olubolade.
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