Share the joy of Christmas with the poor and those in need, Cardinal Onaiyekan urges Nigerians

In his Christmas Message to Nigerians this year, Cardinal John Onaiyekan said everyone must share in the joy that Christmas brings. “It is joy in the midst of challenges and economic recession, hope against every despair and faith to be able to see light at the end of the tunnel of a rather somber environment.  It is a season for sharing, for expressing solidarity and for reaching out to others especially to the poor and needy,” he said.

The Archbishop of Abuja noted that the celebration of Christmas and even Muslim feasts in Nigeria shows the importance the nation attaches to religion. He therefore advised Nigerians to use religion positively to foster peace, Justice, honesty and harmony in the country.

In pointing out the many challenges facing Nigeria at the moment, such as the Boko Haram insurgency, corruption and economic hardships, the Cardinal said all “hands must be on deck to face the many great challenges that are weighing heavily on our nation.” 

He concluded his message by urging Nigerians to embrace Peace as well as seek the face of God through a genuine repentance.

 

Read the full article on this story from the Catholic News Service of Nigeria:

Christmas Mood is a mood of God being with us, Cardinal Onaiyekan

Dec 19, 2016

ABUJA, NIGERIA -

The mood of Christmas, an essential part of Christian faith, is a mood of God being with us.  John Cardinal Onaiyekan, Archbishop of Abuja has declared recently in his 2016 Christmas Message to NTA, VON and Radio Nigeria Carol of Nine Readings, held recently at the National Christian Centre Abuja.

According to him, “God’s love embraces every human being. That is perhaps why the Christmas mood spread all over the world.. as we see decorations and shopping sprees in all the great capitals of the world.”

“Everyone must share in this mood of joy, peace and hope.  It is a mood of God being with us. It is joy in the midst of challenges and economic recession, hope against every despair and faith to be able to see light at the end of the tunnel of a rather somber environment.  It is a season for sharing, for expressing solidarity and for reaching out to others especially to the poor and needy.”

Onaiyekan who noted that the celebration of Christmas and even Muslim feasts in Nigeria shows the importance the nation attaches to religion further advised Nigerians to use religion positively to foster peace, Justice, honesty, harmony among various religious faith in Nigeria.

“The nation not only celebrates the Christian festival of Christmas but also the Muslim religious feasts.  It shows the importance of religion in our land. This is a spiritual asset which should make a positive impact in our land.  True religion must be for peace, for justice, for honesty and harmony.  Christmas is a time for us take up anew the challenges of fashioning good relations among our differing religious communities.  And this is not only between Christians and Muslims but also within our various religious faiths.  It is becoming more and more  clear now that if we do not arrive at harmony within our faiths, it will be difficult to achieve peace between our faiths.”

Cardinal Onaiyekan who noted that as Nigerians ‘we must recognize certain realities in our country which are there, not without the permission and the plan of God himself’ also advised that we must learn to respect our differences and be fair to everyone.

 “We must admit that we live in a country where there is a pluralism of religions.  It is a fact that we cannot change.  The wise attitude therefore, is to cultivate as much as we can respect for our differences and be fair to everyone.  Here the golden rule is always valid – “Do to no one what you would not want done to you.”

Our differences however are not the end of story because we do have a lot of things in common.  We therefore must try to seek those common grounds in terms of those shared spiritual and religious values which then help us to be able to join hands to face the challenges that afflict all of us, without discrimination or distinction. Whether it is Ebola or Malaria, HIV/AIDS or even corruption, every religious community is challenged to take action with the spiritual resources at its disposal, for the common good of all.”

Acknowledging the challenges the country is facing at the moment such as political and social difficulties, the prelate noted that ‘Our overwhelming problems require our common action from the different agents and stakeholders in the society.’

“Our country is in serious political, economic and social difficulties. We seem to have remained largely in the mood of political polarization typical of election campaign period. After the election which took place almost two years ago, campaigns are now over and we should by now be fully in governance mode.  All hands must be on deck to face the many great challenges that are weighing heavily on our nation.  We must forever ban the attitude of “winner take all”, which also tends to provoke in the losers the counter mood of “pulling them down”.  The winners cannot rule alone and the losers must be prepared to cooperate with those who now have the duty to lead the nation in the way forward. Our geographical, religious and ethnic identities, all crisscross. This in itself is the gift of God for us to be able to bring down walls of division. The scandalous social disparity between the rich and the poor in our country has led to an intolerable yawning gap crying to be filled. Poverty and unemployment has been growing, leading to despair and frustration in many quarters, especially among the youth.  Dishonesty and corruption have hardly visibly reduced.  Our overwhelming problems require our common action from the different agents and stakeholders in the society.”

Concluding his message Cardinal Onaiyekan advised all to embrace Peace as well as seek the face of God through a genuine repentance.

“At this Christmas, we must accept the message of peace, peace by all means, including by the route of love, of humility and simplicity.  It is of course the duty of government to make and enforce laws. But the endemic corruption in our land may be calling for some amount of negotiation towards repentance, refunds and possible amnesty.  The limits of the route of tribunals are getting more and more obvious. The war against corruption must be waged with all possible weapons.

It is the duty of the government to secure the land against armed insurrection.  We congratulate our government for major progress made in dealing with Boko Haram crisis in the North East. Mr. President has reason to boast that Boko Haram, from the Military point of view has been “technically defeated”. But it is not yet all over.  This is because there is a limit to how much arms and guns can do in this matter.  We need to put more efforts in dialogue and political discussions leading to reconciliation. Here the role of religion for positive action must be more consciously exploited. Religious communities and leaders must come out to play their role, which is often very efficient and very cost effective, in comparison with budgets for military action.

We pray that soon, the millions of our country men, women and children still living in camps as Internally Displaced Persons, (IDPs) will be able to return home, a home that will be secure and ready to receive them.  At the same time however, more should be done to give them a viable option of settling elsewhere in the country. For example there are many IDP camps all around Abuja. Those who have been languishing in these camps for more than two years have every right to ask for resettlement within the Federal Capital Territory. It is affront to human dignity to leave people to rot away in such camps. After all, almost all of us here have come to settle here from different parts of the nation.  Why not them the IDPs? There is certainly enough space for them within the FCT, and the funding can be sourced if government would only muster the political will to embrace them, as fellow Nigerians.”

While  praying  that soon, ‘the millions of our country men, women and children still living in camps as Internally Displaced Persons, (IDPs) will be able to return home, a home that will be secure and ready to receive them.’, the prelate advised that   ‘more should be done to give them a viable option of settling elsewhere in the country. For example there are many IDP camps all around Abuja. Those who have been languishing in these camps for more than two years have every right to ask for resettlement within the Federal Capital Territory. It is affront to human dignity to leave people to rot away in such camps. After all, almost all of us here have come to settle here from different parts of the nation.  Why not them the IDPs? There is certainly enough space for them within the FCT, and the funding can be sourced if government would only muster the political will to embrace them, as fellow Nigerians.’