Most Rev. Dr. Ignatius Kaigama, the Archbishop of Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, says the current spate of security challenges being faced by Nigeria calls for serious retrospection from the leadership and all Nigerians.
Kaigama said this on Sunday in a Homily he delivered during his pastoral visit to St. Luke’s Catholic Church, Kubwa, Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the First reading was taken from 2nd Samuel. 5:1-3, second reading from letter of St. Paul to the Colossians 1: 12-20, while the Gospel was taken from St. Luke 23: 35-43, from where the cleric anchored his Homily.
Kaigama who administered the sacrament of confirmation to about 500 candidates during the event used the medium to speak on the state of affairs in the country.
The pastoral visit coincided with the feast of Christ the King, a day Catholics all over the world process on the streets to showcase the universal kingship of Christ.
According to Kiagama, “On a day like this I should be at the Pro cathedral for the Christ the King, but when Rev. Fr. Celestine Eze, the Parish Priest of St. Luke’s told me that he has about 500 recruited soldiers for Christ, I said I must be here.”
He said that the feast of Christ the King is about 100 years today, recalling that the feast was introduced at a time there was too much crisis in the world with the motive for God to intervene in the affairs of man.
“But in spite of all that is being done since over 100 years ago by the church, the problems still abound.”
He asked God to touch the hearts of those perpetrating evils especially in Nigeria for them to have a change of hearts.
Kaigama said, Police in the world are those when in trouble, if you run to them and they will help you, but I don’t know if that is the case in Nigeria.
He said before now, Nigerians were branded the happiest and the must religious people on earth, but I don’t know if that still obtained.
“In spite of the magnitude of evil going on in our land, on Sundays and Fridays people fill the churches and mosques, and my question is where are these evil perpetrators coming from? Do they really worship God? he asked.
Kaigama, who traced the problem plaguing the country to the 1960 Nigeria/Biafran civil war, noted that it was since then that tribalism and religious sentiments became measures used in sharing national resources.
He said this situation had degenerated to some people being treated as sacred cows, after they stole resources belonging to the public and nothing happens to them.
“Rather than being punished, they get honoured and most of what they stole their children and children’s children can’t finish.
“All these are things causing us draw back, but in other places such things are not done.
“In South Africa, South Korea and other countries things are done differently, leaders are punished for wrong doings.
“We are too polite to leaders who stole our common patrimonies in our country and until we begin to punish such corrupt leaders things can’t move forward.
“In our country if you say that a former leader from any part of the country had done something wrong, all the groups in that part would come in his defence and that is why we are not moving forward.”
He said in Equatorial Guinea, an oil producing nation like Nigeria, the level of development there is great and yet Nigeria has nothing to show for it’s oil.
The Archbishop said, if we must get things right, leaders must think of the nation and not tribe and religion.
“Christ as a leader was sacrificial in his style, he was forgiven and we must reject hatred and learn to love one another,” he said.
Kaigama, who alluded to the declaration of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) by President Donald Trump and the threat of military action, said there is the need for indepth reflection on the intervention before anything else.
“America should give us a holistic help and not bombing and flying drones and thereafter go their way.
“They should not bomb and run away as they did in Afghanistan and Iran after shattering the whole place, that kind of help is not what we want here”.
He prayed for those in captivity, especially school children recently kidnapped in kebbi, Niger, priest killed in Kaduna and an army general Killed in Bornu among others.
“One may be forced to ask what nation is this that this level of killings are going?
“We must allow God to rule our hearts as Nigerians, God that will allow you to butcher your brother and sister is not certainly the true God.
“Pray for peace and stability in the country. We should pray for peace in the hearts of over 250 million Nigerians, let God enter and dwell in all these hearts.
“We should pray for good leadership’s, both elected and non-elected leadership. We are tired of killings, destruction and evil,” he said.
Archbishop Kaigama
