By Ben Atonko (DAILY TRUST) For Nigeria to see peace, love, sanity and enjoy God’s blessings, it must undergo ethical transformation, so says the Director National Issues, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev Dr William Okoye.
Okoye identified Nigerians’ loss of sense of humanity and obsession with material accumulation as factors killing the country. The cleric who spoke at the National Christian Centre, Abuja on Wednesday ahead of the launch of a major moral rejuvenation campaign in the country raised alarm saying, “Any nation that places emphasis on materialism is toying with disaster”.
Tagged “Be the change you want to see”, Okoye who was chaplain in the presidential villa during former President Olusegun Obasanjo administration said, “The campaign is to encourage all Christians return to sound biblical discipline which will lead Christians to be examples of what we preach and teach and carry on this crusade to the larger society.”
He acknowledged that the various sermons preached by the church have not stopped moral drift.
According to him, the result is lack of consistently God-centred, people-oriented, focused and purposeful leadership.
He quoted Daniel Wehster who said, ‘…if we work upon men’s immortal minds, if we imbue them with high principles, with the just fear of God and the love of their fellowmen, we engrave on those tablets something which no time can efface and which will brighten to all eternity.’
“It’s the conviction of the church in Nigeria that the single most important factor responsible for our nation’s miseries, emptiness and shadow-chasing is our distorted sense of values and misplaced priorities.”
He observed that as Nigeria gropes in the dark, looking for a new dawn, the church should help in the rebirth, reformation and reconstruction through redefinition of the nation’s morality, code of conduct and discipline.
The church, he said can do all this by placing greater emphasis on sound biblical teachings and values.
He said the church carries the sacred burden to return society to sanity stressing that “righteousness exalts a nation”.
The campaign which will be driven through churches is nationwide and all Christian denominational.
CAN is umbrella body of churches in Nigeria.
