This year's Lenten season culminated yesterday with the celebration of Easter Sunday. Christians all over the world, beginning from Good Friday, had been marking the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
During Lent, the faithful engaged in fasting and prayers for 40 days to seek atonement for sins, ask for restoration and fellowship with God, and reflect on the exemplary life that Christ lived. Easter is one of the most important anniversaries in the Christian calendar.
Although activities marking this occasion are officially supposed to come to an end today with the expiration of the last day of the public holiday traditionally declared by the federal government, reflection on the lessons of this anniversary should be a continuous one. It provides a good opportunity for all Nigerians, Christian and Muslim alike, and adherents of other faiths, to ponder on their individual lives and the current conditions in Nigeria.
The country has been going through challenging times in recent years. Insecurity, massive unemployment, immorality in both high and low places, greed, selfishness and lack of fellow-feeling among the populace, and monumental corruption among public office holders and civil servants are all partly due to a continuing slide in moral values, which in themselves flow from lack of fear of God and absence of compassion for fellow citizens and neighbours, virtues that Christ exemplified and promoted. As a result, majority of Nigerians, deprived of these resources, lead a miserable existence. As both leaders and citizenry search for solution to the myriad of problems that the country confronts, there are some lessons they can learn from the exemplary life of Jesus Christ and apply in their everyday life to make Nigeria a better country.
One of the most important one is sacrifice for both individual personal development and the progress of the nation. A life of greed, conspicuous consumption and selfishness indulged in by those who should lead by example has done much to ruin this country, which otherwise has abundant resources to make a better nation and satisfied citizens.
A few persons in certain positions in society steal a large chunk of public funds, leaving the vast majority in penury and the country with broken infrastructure. Many pensioners have died on endless queues, while pension fund officials callously feed fat on them and stash more in private bank accounts. The rot extends to practically every stratum of government establishment. This is unconscionable and must be stopped and their perpetrators and accomplices punished.
Yet the stealing of pension funds is not the only vile crime going on in this country. If it is not stealing money, it is corruption by other means, like the skewing of policies to short-circuit the law for the purpose of nepotism.
The spate of unresolved bombings and targeted assassinations has continued, almost unabated.
So have strings of kidnapping, armed robbery and other violent criminal activity.
There is currently almost an acrimonious debate over whether amnesty for perpetrators of these bombings would be appropriate. President Goodluck Jonathan has said the government would not negotiate with 'ghosts', meaning whoever these people are, they should come out into the open and declare themselves. Even among Christians, there are factions bitterly opposed to the idea of amnesty, quite unlike the teaching of Christ that call for forgiveness.
The general disposition to engage in or to aid and abet greed, particularly where public money is involved, has become the bane of the society and a serious hindrance to efforts to curtail it. Despite a government agency devoted to national orientation, these vices persist and are growing in official circles. Any campaign of national reorientation must be focused at rebuilding and strengthening positive national values.
Jesus Christ, whose life Christians are celebrate, was known for his humility, love for humanity and peace, a disdain for graft, and a willingness to forgive. These are the virtues Nigerians, irrespective of tribe or religion or region, should cultivate and internalise for the country to develop along the path of moral transformation.
---Culled from Daily Trust.
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