From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Kaduna State Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Joseph Hayab, has said Nigerians did not need a prophet to tell them the country is at war given activities of gunmen, kidnappers and bandits.
Speaking at an intercessory prayer organised by the national CAN against insecurity in the country, Hayab warned governments at all levels not to take patience of the citizens for granted, lest they may resort to self-defence.
He said: “CAN national executive, through the national president in a circular, looking at the challenge of insecurity, the instability in our land and lack of positive progress even as we match to another year that government was sworn-in, declared MAy, Friday 28 to Sunday 30 for Nigeria Christians to fast and pray to seek the face of the Lord concerning this country and also to challenge ourselves on the need to act responsibly as Citizens.
“Nigeria, despite years of independence and different kinds of government, seems not to have a tangible progress that we can be proud of, the government of the day want us to sing praises of their doings but the reality is that Nigerians are still suffering due to poverty, hunger, kidnapping, banditry, religious crisis and the best contribution we can give is to pray.
“Many of us are obedient citizens, our leaders are exploiting our obedience to continue to cheat us, for you to challenge any leader, you must first of all look at your self, when we pray and do what is right, we can hold our leaders responsible.
“It was an exciting news when I heard the release of Greenfield students, we prayed for the Greenfield last Sunday, we celebrate with them, we thank God they are save even though the parents paid ransom and the things they did which shows that we really have a long way to go if our leaders will be truly a government, a government that doesn’t take pride in securing its citizens only come out to issue a statement after the people have suffered to cough out money over N150 million and bought motorcycles that is not less than N500,000, something is wrong with Nigeria.
“Nigerians must wake up, our leaders took oath of office to protect lives and property, if they want us to start protecting ourselves, there will be confusion, we believe they are the one to protect us. If they don’t, they are asking us to do it, we don’t want to take laws into our hands but then if the going gets though and there is no where to go, Nigerians may have no option, but that is not what we pray for.
“Nigeria is not secure, the reality is that Nigeria is not safe. Everybody is living in fear. Nobody needs any prophet to tell you that Nigeria is already in a terrible situation of war, it may not be a full blown war but when your citizens are not secured, what do you then call war? The challenge we have is that our government is exploiting our simplicity and patience because there is no country that have patience like Nigerians.”