Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
As the 2023 general elections draw closer, the Catholic Priest in Charge of Saint Justina’s Pastoral Area Mayodasa in Jalingo Diocese has said that Nigeria is a nation in darkness and desperately need divine light to salvage the future.
Nbashi, who made the assertion during his Sunday sermon said that all indications of poverty, infrastructural decay, failing institutions, insecurity and others despite the enormous human and Natural resources show that something is fundamentally wrong with the country and the people must make conscious efforts to reverse the trend by ensuring active participation in the forthcoming general elections.
Taking his quotation from the Gospel according to Mathew Chapter Four, the Clergy maintained that all hope is not lost as the people have the opportunity to chose leaders with proven competence, integrity, contemporary outlook and knowledge as they go into the election.
Fr Mbashi said that while God is willing and ready to let His light to shine on the people, it was important that, like the early disciples, the people must drop sentiments, tribalism, greed, bigotry, sectionalism and all other things holding them back and answer the call of Christ to follow the light of salvation.
“The sad reality is that Nigeria, like the lands of Zebulum and Naphtali, is in deep darkness. We are officially the poverty headquarters of the world. More than a hundred and Thirty Million Nigerians are living in abject poverty. This can not be acceptable.
“We are among the leading oil producing countries in the world and yet, you can not even see fuel to buy at the fuel stations. Our refineries are all dead and instead of fixing them and building even more, we prefer to take the crude oil out and then return the refined product at outrageous figures in the name of subsidy that only makes sense to the demonic cabals benefiting from it the the detriment of the people.
“Today, you can not travel freely in any part of the country. It is either the bandits have blocked the roads and are moving people into the forests for ransom, or the roads are so bad they have become death traps. Even our rail system that they are only now trying to revamp, have become very unsafe. No one is safe anywhere, not in the homes, in the Church, in schools, in the markets or anywhere.
“There is systemic failure in education, health, agriculture, social security, economy, security and indeed governance. It is really a very bleak situation. However, like the prophet Isaiah said, there is hope because all who walk in darkness shall see a great light and in the land of deep shadow a bright light will shine. There will be rejoicing again in Nigeria because the rod of the oppressor shall be destroyed and the captive of the land shall be set free again.
“That is the opportunity that 2023 offers us. To rewrite our way forward. Let me say that if there is any of you here who has not collected his PVC and is indifferent about it, that person is part of our problems. God has brought us this far and put us through all we have been through so that we can wake up and do the right thing.
“We have received His call once again to follow His light. If we chose to allow sentiments and greed to decide for us, then we would certainly continue to wade in the darkness and rest assured that we have also mortgaged the future of our children and generations yet unborn. If you collect monies from politicians and vote for the wrong people, we would all suffer it”.
Nbashi called on the parents to watch their children closely as the election draws closer and urged the youth to resist the temptation to collect monies and other benefits to work as thugs to disrupt the election as they would invoke the wrath of God upon themselves.
