The Coordinator, Christians United for Israel (CUFI) prayer outreach Nigeria, Kaduna State chapter, Bishop John Ekpeme has said that Nigeria should count itself luckiest country in the world, considering the abundance of natural resources it is blessed with.
In an interview with newsmen on the occasion of 75th Independence anniversary of Israel as a nation by CUFI, Bishop Ekpeme noted that if Israel could survive several challenges it had passed through despite slim resources, Nigeria could do better with its abundant human and natural endowments.
“Basically we are here to celebrate Israel at 75 years of Independence Day anniversary. We are talking of modern day Israel since they got their Independent on the 14th day of May, 1948, that is what we are doing all over the world under the platform of Christians United for Israel. In Nigeria alone, we are in about 27 States, and in six African countries that are members of CUFI.
“If you are used to the history of the Israelites you will realise what they had passed through in history time, struggle and all of that. Nigeria as a nation, that is blessed with so much as far as I am concerned, as a die hard lover of Nigeria and as a Nigerian, I believed that in recent times Nigeria had passed through alot of challenges, economy, security, politically and social instability and all of that. I believe that sticking to our visions, Nigeria can be great.
“If Israel was able to conquer all the challenges that they went through in history time, activities of anti submissive and all of that, and today Israel is standing tall among the comity of nations, and has achieved so much and they are where they are today, and am telling you the little I know, I believe there is no country in the whole world that God has blessed like Nigeria.
“So if Israel can get it right, Nigeria can get it right double.So Nigeria should keep working hard, keep loving each other, it doesn’t matter our faith, it doesn’t matter our tribes. Let our theme be Nigeria, and Nigeria alone, any other thing is secondary.
“I think there is no challenge that is new or special that Israel cannot conquer or overcome. There is no nation in the world without challenges, it depends on how it is being handled. The Prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu left a legacy when he was in power, and he has been elected again. He has always diplomatically handled those challenges. And Israel has been together. Crisis has been, but those crises have not brought Israel down, rather it makes it stronger.
“Apart from sociopolitical challenge we have in Nigeria, another challenge is religion. Before you chose a faith you were Nigerian, if God wanted all of us to be Christians He would have made all of us Christians, if God wanted to make all of us Muslims, He would have made all of us Muslims. He knows why He was able to bring all of us together as Muslims and Christians. So we should see Muslims as our brothers, and Muslims should see Christians as their brothers.
“We should work together for Nigeria dream, not a Christian dream, not the Islam dream, and until we start seeing it that way we can never make a head way. So it is good we start pursuing Nigeria dream in unity, not sectionally, not tribally. This is what I think will make Nigeria move forward”. Bishop Ekpeme said.
Asked to give advice about how government can stem insecurity in Nigeria, the Clergyman said, “a nation that is insecure can never make development, a nation that has no peace can never make any kind of development, socio-economical, sociopolitical and otherwise. It is not possible.
“So the issue of insecurity should be seriously handled by Nigerian government. The government should empower and fund our security system the more, making sure that they supervise every fund received so that the fund is not diverted. They need weapons and other relevant things to run the operations.
“Secondly, we need to step up our training on intelligence gathering. They should train more people and officers that will be able to gather enough information about intelligence. Among those intelligence that we have, they should be proactive rather than waiting to be attacked. We should not be on the fence”.
Source-The Sun Nigeria
Share your thoughts