By Odinaka Uruakpa
The District Superintendent of Apostolic Faith Church, West and Central Africa, Rev. Adebayo Adeniran, has urged Nigerians to shun all forms of bitterness, as he encouraged them to show love to one another and avoid the use of hate speeches.
Adeniran said this at the Easter Concert of the Apostolic Faith, West and Central Africa tagged “Christ the King” held on Easter Sunday at the church’s National Headquarters in Lagos.
Speaking on the significance of Easter, Adeniran said just as Jesus Christ is victorious over death, Christians and Nigerians in general should not allow the devil to torment them with problems.
He advised leaders and citizens alike to live selfless lives and put in their best in all they do to make the country a better place to live in.
“We should not live selfish lives. We should be able to invest positively bin our country. All that we have is for a purpose. Jesus made the provision for the cleansing of corruption, God is averse to corruption
“Whatever we do that is not borne out of love is dangerous even to ourselves and to others. God wants us to relate well with one another. All ethnic hatred, hate speeches do not come from the heart with love.
“It comes from a heart that has been corrupted; I pray that the power of God’s blood will work in our country”, he said.
While emphasizing on the benefits of love, the cleric prayed that Gid will re-engineer the minds of the people to have pure love so that they can look out for one another.
“We should see through the lens of love, let love move around us, Jesus died so that love could spread thearound.
“If we refuse to accept the love of Jesus Christ we will exhibit lust and it will make us to be greedy, hateful and selfish,’’ he said.
Also speaking on the occasion, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina expressed optimism that Nigeria would overcome problems just as Jesus overcame death.
According to him: “The message of Easter is the message of victory over darkness, victory over death and the lesson we can learn is that Nigeria will over come the problems besieging the country.
“Whether killings, economic, political or social problems, they can be overcome; just as Jesus overcame death. We shall also overcome our troubles; Nigeria will resurrect just as Jesus resurrected.
“We will overcome all the problems facing our country. This period is a time for us to be encouraged, resonate and determined that God still rules in the affairs of men, and Nigeria.”
On efforts to secure the release of Leah Sharibu, the presidential spokesman urged Nigerians to keep faith, saying that the federal government is doing everything possible to ensure the safe return of Leah and others that were abducted.
“We believe that Leah will come back one day, a lot is being done, and you know you cannot begin to proclaim sensitive things like that on the pages of the newspaper’’, he said.
He also said that the Next Level agenda for the present administration is a consolidation of things that have been done, what is being done and that which is still pending.
His words: “Security, reviving the economy, creating jobs and fighting corruption; Next Level is a consolidation of all these things. We will focus more on infrastructure, economy, small and medium scale enterprises. There is going to be what we call money bank and enterprise bank and there is going to be inclusive government.”
