Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka
Catholic Bishop of Awka Diocese, Most Rev. Dr. Paulinus Chukwuemeka Ezeokafor, yesterday has tasked the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari on the need to always apply the principle of equity and fairness in its approach to issues of national concern.
Bishop Ezeokafor who spoke at St. Patrick’s Catholic Cathedral, Awka while delivering his Easter message, said President Mohammadu Buhari’s two-day working visit to Lagos state to commission a bus-stop on Christian’s most important days was a huge slap on Nigerian Christians.
He berated those that advised the President to embark on such trip on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday respectively for giving him wrong advice, stating that the said trip could have been undertaken after the Easter celebration or any other time.
The cleric further said that Christianity and Islam were the two major religion in Nigeria and should be accorded equal respect and recognition by the powers that be, warning that giving preferential treatment to one to the detriment of the other would not be in the interest of the country.
Noting that Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday were days Christians concentrated on what they believed gave them salvation, Bishop Ezeokafor described Easter as the greatest feast in the Christendom, hence should be respected by those in authority.
He therefore admonished President Buhari to treat every section of the country equally irrespective of religious sentiments.
The Bishop who celebrated Easter for over 500 downtrodden and indigents irrespective of their religious affiliations with variety of food items, clothes and other goodies said Christ suffered and won victory for mankind and in same way people faced difficulties in life, would at the end come out triumphant and happy.
Easter he stressed presented an opportunity for the faithful to thank God for the opportunity of being part and parcel of it, as well as a time for telling themselves some home truths.
He said, “’This time around my message to the people of God and all, especially those of us living in Nigeria, is that there is still hope. Because we know that, according to St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians: 18:14, the fact that Christ is alive should give us hope, otherwise our lives would have been in vain,’ he counseled, even as he preached a message of hope and trust amid the trying times.”
The bishop said that despite the stressful times, people should trust in God by emulating Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane who, despite his travail, did not give up.
“There are difficulties but it is only the living that would come up to tell the story. So, let us stop living as if we are hopeless. There is hope and Christ showed that hope in the father; went through suffering and you can see that at the end of the day, his resurrection brought us life.
“Christ took up that challenge; so I challenge all of us to take up whatever challenges that life brings. Suffering is already part and parcel of our lives and nobody can be immune from it,’ he said, even as he urged Nigerians to shun corruption and lead a life of righteousness in the spirit of Easter.”
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