Leaders need to be responsive to masses need -Cleric
The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Abeokuta, Ogun state, Most Rev. Dr. Peter Kayode Odetoyinbo, has called on government to find a lasting solution to the crisis bedeviling the country.
Bishop Odetoyinbo in his 2016 Christmas message to Nigerians also called on Nigerians to rededicate their lives to God as He is the only one that can give hope to the people.
The Bishop opined in his message that the celebration of Christmas this year is one like never before because of its uniqueness.
His words: “For the first time in a long while, Nigerians are excessively apprehensive about what tide this Christmas season will bring to them. There is hunger in the land; there is anger in the land; there is frustration in the land; there is anxiety, there is fear in the land; more so, there is scarcity of resources in the land.
“Nigerians await an urgent and pragmatic relief from these undeserved and severe conditions of life. The leadership of the country needs to be more alive to the yearnings and sufferings of the people through sincere commitment to fighting corruption, strengthening of our institutions, palliative economic policies as well as medium and long term economic policies, provision of jobs, removal of multiple taxations and provision of social infrastructure.”
Bishop Odetoyinbo also said that the only hope of mankind comes from “Jesus, who is called Emmanuel the presence of God with us, in us and among us rekindles our hope, and strengthens those who are downcast, weak and oppressed.
“All of us have the capacity to choose joy over and above sorrow just like John the Baptist rejoiced at the presence of Jesus. This is the time to re-affirm our faith in God’s abiding presence that sees us through difficult moments”.
“One mistake that we cannot as Christians make at this point in time is to think that our joy is conditioned by our material possessions or lack of them”.
He added that “the joy that Jesus brings is more than that. Everyone deserves to be joyful and especially the poorest of the poor among us. Regardless of the difficult economic situation of the country, be encouraged to cater for the poor in this season since they look up to God for sustenance through you.
“The human tendency is to think that you also do not have enough and so you may want to relent in extending your hands of charity to the needy around you, but the word of God challenges you to give to the needy without hesitation because when you do that, the Lord will bless you in everything you work for and set out to do.”
