*Says greatest Nigeria’s problem is lack of love, unity
President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday maintained that he rose from
the smallest community in Bayelsa State to become the President of
Nigeria by the grace of God and support of the people.
Speaking at the Apostolic
Faith Church in Jabi, Abuja, where he worshiped with the congregation in
the Sunday Church Service, Jonathan who is presently not in good terms
with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, noted that lack of love and
unity has been the greatest problem facing the country.
Likening the present
challenges in Nigeria to those faced by the Israelites in the Old
Testament of the Holy Bible when leaving Egypt for the Promised Land, he
promised to bequeath a better Nigeria to the upcoming children.
He urged the congregation to continue to pray for Nigeria as the
country has been specially blessed by God and will get to greater
heights through the prayers of Nigerians.
Jonathan said: “We will try our best but this is not the time
to reel out what we are doing or what we are not doing, otherwise they
will think I am here to campaign. But I assure you, this congregation
and indeed all Nigerians that by the will of God and your support, I am
here today from nowhere.”
“Any child of Nigeria can be where I am. I come from the smallest
state in this country, even within the state, one of the smallest
communities in Bayelsa state. Even within the community, one of the
smallest families, but I am here today by the grace of God.”
“That is the type of Nigeria we want to create, a Nigeria where you
can get what you want if you work hard, it is not because you know
somebody who knows somebody that will talk to somebody. A Nigeria that
our children, if they work hard, will get whatever they want just like
in other free societies like America and so on. We will work with you to
help you to get to wherever you want to go.” He added
Stressing that he had no formal address to read to the
congregation, the President said that he has recently been misquoted by
the media.
“I don’t have a formal address. Because for those of us in
politics, these days are not the best days to make speeches because any
statement we make, people look at how to paint it. The next day when you
read the newspapers, you start doubting if that is what you said. So
any statement we make is always used against us.” He said
He went on: “But I am quite pleased to be here with you today to
worship with you. I love the children and your programme. I love the
choir ministration. Probably, this is the first time I am worshiping
with you since I came to Abuja in 2007. Probably, you would have seen me
more than ten times if we don’t have a chapel in the villa, so we
worship there every Sunday.”
“But during the Christmas and New Year period, I like to go round
and interact with other brethren. The reason is actually to thank all of
you for what you have been doing for this country, for your prayers. I
always say and I will continue to say it that but for your prayers,
probably it would have been worse than this.”“As a nation, we have our
challenges, no doubt about that and anytime I look at the history of
Nigeria and the challenges we face and when I read parts of the old
statement about when the Israelites decided to move out of Egypt to the
promised land, we have something quite similar.”“As you are getting
closer, you meet more obstacles and thank God for the sermon we heard
and of course the songs showed that the greatest problem we have is love
and unity. Yes, Nigeria was amalgamated by our colonial masters in
1914. By 1st January next year, Nigeria as a state will be 100 years
old.”
Harping on the divine creation of Nigeria, he said: “But I totally
agree with our man of God that it was not by chance, it was ordained by
God. If God didn’t will it at that point, the north and south would not
have come together. The details of the north and south coming together
make Nigeria a very great country. I use to say that Nigeria is great
not because of oil, we have countries that produce more oil than Nigeria
but nobody talks about them.”“We have countries that have multi million
dollars in reserve because of their wealth and nobody talks about them
but here we are just talking about 40,000 dollars. But the biggest to
the smallest country talks about Nigeria. Why? Because of the diversity
from the north to the south, the human and natural resources, the
potentials and the population that we have.”
“So, Nigeria is a country that has a special blessing from God. It
is left for us to appreciate God and continue to pray for God’s
intervention and this country will continue to be great.”“I promise our
children that we are totally committed to make sure that they meet a
different Nigeria. We will collectively work hard to overcome these
barriers, these feelings of oh that I am Christian, I am a Muslim, I am
Hausa, I am Ijaw. Immediately we cross that barrier and we begin to
believe that we are all Nigerians and we are committed to the
development of this country, our children will surely meet a better
Nigeria.” Jonathan said.
Earlier in the service, the President took the Bible Reading from the Book of Lamentations, Chapter 3, Verses 22 to 26.
Delivering the sermon titled ‘Living worthy of great mercies, great
faithfulness of God,’ Rev. Bayo Adeniran said that Nigeria will be very
great if it returns from its evil ways, repent and follow God like the
people of Nineveh in the Bible in Jonah 3: 5 to 8.
While praying for Nigeria,
he urged Nigerians to be wary of false prophets stressing that the
mercies and grace of God is available for the country
He said: “If Nigeria
believe in God like the people of Nineveh, God will heal Nigeria. The
swiftness of God shall visit this country. We are so bothered about
external corruption, but there are so much corruption in the heart.”
“The nation starts with
you, the individual and the family. Return to God and God will answer
your prayers. Nigeria shall not die, Nigeria will live if we return to
God.” He stated
He also took the congregation through Psalm 100:4-5, Luke 17:15, Psalm 101:1, Psalm 130:1-4, Psalm 90:13-17 and Luke 13: 6-9.
Some top government officials attended the service with the President.
No comments:
Post a Comment