Let’s Join Hands to Build a Prosperous Nation, Archbishop Martins Admonishes Nigerians at Christmas

The Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Most Rev. (Dr) Alfred Adewale Martins, has admonished Nigerians to remain positive and continue to contribute their quotas towards ensuring that the country surmounts its current challenges and becomes great again.

In his 2023 Christmas message signed by the Director of Social Communications, Rev. Fr. Anthony Godonu, Archbishop Martins affirmed that God has a special love for Nigeria and Nigerians, hence they must never be afraid to work towards actualizing the country of their dream.

He commended them for their resilience and ability to bounce back to reckoning despite the numerous obstacles they had been confronted with over the years, adding that the present challenges facing the country would not be an exception; they would also pass and become history.

Archbishop Martins reminded Nigerians to always focus on the saving grace of God who through His son Jesus Christ has come at Christmas to redeem mankind from sin and bring them to eternal life. This grace, he averred, is always available for all of God’s children, irrespective of their religion, tribe, or creed.

He said:  “In this season of Christmas, I give thanks to God and congratulate Nigerians for the grace and privilege of being alive to witness yet another Christmas, a period that we are all reminded of God’s uncommon love for humanity. He exhibited this divine love for us over 2000 years ago by the coming of the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, who left his glory in heaven to be born of a Virgin so as to save humanity from the shackles of sin and bring us to a life of abundance. This love of God for us is selfless and is a perfect example of how we must show love for one another. When we love and care for each other, as Jesus continues to do, we will be able to live together in peace and harmony like true brothers and sisters.

In this season of joy, therefore, I wish to urge all Nigerians to set aside all the bitterness that characterizes inter-tribal and interreligious relationships and work together to build a truly great country that we will all be proud of.”

Archbishop Martins also condoled with the families of over a hundred people who were recently killed in the military drone mishap in Tundun Biri in the Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Northwest Nigeria.

He prayed to God for the quick recovery of the injured and called on the military authorities to ensure a thorough investigation into the incident and to ensure such an unfortunate incident does not happen again.

The prelate, while wishing Nigerians a merry Christmas, also called on members of the political class and all those in positions of authority to lead with the fear of God and put in place policies that will impact positively on the lives of the majority of the people. As Nigerians are being called upon to make sacrifice for the restoration of the nation, he urged government to take the lead by reducing the cost of governance and money spent on matters that do not impact directly on the life of Nigerians such as foreign trips that create a Deja vu feeling in citizens while they had been expecting new ways of doing things.