From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Bishop of Kaduna, Anglican Communion, Rt. Revd. Timothy Yahaya, has expressed fear that unless God intervenes, the fight to end banditry and kidnapping by security operatives may remain elusive.
He said his fear was based on the fact that those fighting the war against insecurity were demoralised confronting the enemy with obsolete weapons and lack of motivation.
He charged government to arrest and publish names of alleged sponsors of banditry, kidnapping and insurgency.
The cleric, however, said with God all things were possible, making reference to the Bible story where God rolled the stone away from the tomb of Jesus.
“I can tell you that the God that rolled away the stone, the same God will roll away the stone of insecurity in Nigeria. If you look at the weapon they are using today they are obsolete, we see on social media that people are demoralised, those fighting this war are demoralised; how can people on the theatre of war or in the front of a battle not be motivated, let government look at the betrayals within the security forces. You arranged that you’re going to do a thing before you know it they are ambushed, who gave the information that led to the ambush, the government keep saying we will publish names of the people behind insecurity. You don’t need to be telling us you will publish the names, we don’t want that announcement, we want to know the people, it is very sad to say if government know the people who are the sponsors of insecurity and have not arrested them, they are failing in their responsibility. I call on government not only to name the people, but to arrest the people.
“My Easter message is borne out of the story of who will roll the stone. Some three women in the early hours of Easter were going to the tomb of Jesus. And the greatest difficult they had was what became like rocket science for them is who will roll the stone so that they could have access to the body of Christ. But, alas, before they arrived, the stone has been rolled away. The stone was their challenge at that time.
“My Easter message therefore is that the God that rolled away the stone is the same God that will roll away stone in Nigeria today. I want us to trust God, believe God, with God all things are possible. Some people are beginning to lose heart and thinking that nothing good will happen in Nigeria again. I can tell you that the God that rolled away the stone, the same God will roll away stone of insecurity in Nigeria. Same God can roll away the stone of unemployment in Nigeria, roll away stone of lack of good health system, roll away stone of bad educational system, stone of infrastructural decay, stone of fuel price crisis.