Today is Easter, a day Christians all over the world celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ more than 2000 years ago. Easter is easily the most important and significant feast in Christendom, for it commemorates the victory of good over evil, light over darkness, and hope over despair. Christ’s victory over death is both, in substance and symbolism, a fulfillment of His salvific mission on earth – the hope of eternal life for the faithful.
To achieve His mission, Christ sacrificed Himself, took on human form, and suffered the most humiliating death, by crucifixion, after Jewish authorities, uneasy at His transformational teachings, pressured the Roman authorities to have Him killed on Good Friday. But as He had promised His disciples, he came back to life on the third day after His death.
Easter is the culmination of the Holy Month of Lent, a 40-day walk of faith starting from Ash Wednesday, during which the Christian faithful recommit themselves to prayer, abstinence, almsgiving and other forms of piety in preparation for this momentous occasion.
So as is traditional on an occasion like this, President Muhammadu Buhari has sent an Easter message to the Christian faithful in Nigeria.
According to him, as “the season reminds us that the Almighty can turn an unpleasant situation round for good, and Easter is about renewed hope and a glorious future. I urge all Nigerians to continue to be confident and believe strongly in our country for better seasons ahead.”
He noted that Nigeria had gone through an election that had produced the next set of leaders at the federal and state levels, and while he commended those who were elected as the polls, he equally urged those who feel dissatisfied with the outcome to not only seek legal redress, but also have the patience and allow the country’s legal system run its course.
He urged all the faithful to celebrate this season with families, neighbours and communities in love, compassion, kindness, resilience and forgiveness.
As a newspaper, we align with Buhari’s call for patience with the judicial system and for those aggrieved at the conduct and outcome of the last general election to have confidence in the system. We also urge the judges to – like Christ – do justice to all men.
Easter offers a few lessons to Nigerian leaders and followers alike. Christ’s sacrificial love – in which He gave His life for the wellbeing of His flock – is a leadership model which is largely absent in Nigeria but which the country’s ruling elite needs to imbibe. Unlike Christ, most people in leadership positions do the opposite of Christ’s example: they not only put their personal wellbeing ahead of the common good, they go to the extent of sabotaging the interest of their followers in order to satisfy their own narrow whims.
Also as a leader, Christ’s followers follow Him of their own freewill; in Nigeria, the leaders force themselves on the people – in the past, it manifested through military coups, more recently, it is through rigged elections.
As a leader Christ kept his promises to His followers, some of which were that He would rise from death, return to heaven and send them the Holy Spirit to guide them; in Nigeria, most leaders forget the campaign promises once they get to office, others do the exact opposite of what they pledged.
Throughout his earthly mission, Christ preached love, oneness and a common humanity among God’s children; contrarily, many Nigerians in authority, by their speeches and actions, stoke hatred and division along ethnic and religious lines.
Furthermore, Christ set good examples for His followers; however, the examples set by most Nigerian leaders leave a lot to be desired and have accounted to the country’s failures as a nation. So, for Nigeria to make the desired progress, Nigerian leaders need to emulate a lot from Christ, especially His forthrightness and His willingness to sacrifice His comfort for the wellbeing of His flock. They must eschew their self-centredness and their unbridled quest for primitive accumulation.
To a nation where the hope of a better future is increasingly looking dim, we urge all Nigerians to take solace in the experience of Christ – that victory can come through adversity – and look forward to a better tomorrow. We urge them to remain lawful and steadfast in living according to the teachings of Christ – to treat the others the way they want to be treated themselves.
Happy Easter to all Nigerians.
