Easter celebration: CAN carpets Buhari over insecurity, economic woes

The Christian Association of Nigeria, Kaduna State chapter, has said that Nigerians are thirsty as a result of bad economy under the current regime of the President, Major General Muhammad Buhari (retd.).

The association, therefore, appealed to Buhari to provide succour for Nigerians just as Jesus Christ was provided with vinegar while on the cross.

A statement titled, ‘Nigerians are thirsty,’ signed by the state CAN Chairman, Reverend Joseph Hayab, and released in Kaduna on Thursday, noted that Nigerians were celebrating Easter with a “dry throat, stomach, and lifestyle because of the failure of Nigerian leaders”.

Hayab, who’s also the Vice-Chairman of the CAN in the Northern states and Abuja, added that what needed to be done by the government was to provide cold water to quench the thirst of Nigerians.

He added that “People have been crying out loud, like Jesus on the cross, that they were thirsty, but, sadly, the leaders do not appear to care.”

The CAN leader urged the citizens to be one another’s keepers by contributing meaningfully to national growth to support to quench the thirst of their neighbours, friends, and the less privileged near them.

The statement read, “The Bible in John 19: 28-29 records that … Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, “I thirst.” Now, there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and the soldiers lifted a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.

“Jesus in the last days and hours of his agony made many spiritual revelations about life and how to address human, spiritual, and physical needs. Jesus on the cross shared in human pains by saying “I am thirsty.” Indeed, Nigerians, nowadays, can say, like Jesus on the cross of cavalry, that they were thirsty.

“They are thirty due to poor economy, thirsty due to bad governance, and thirty because of insecurity. All the thirst experiences could lead to misery. Accordingly, celebrating Jesus’ victory at Easter with a dry throat, dry stomach, and dry lifestyle are because of the failure of the successive administrations as well as the existing one.

“So, what is basic is that the government needs to provide cold water to quench the thirst of Nigerians. People have been crying out loud, like Jesus on the cross, that they were thirsty, but, sadly, the leaders do not appear to care. However, there is a lesson that I wish Nigerian leaders could learn from the soldiers that policed Jesus on the cross. When the Lord cried out of thirst, they provided vinegar for succor.

“Therefore, it is a complete disservice for the government to abandon citizens in pain without showing genuine concern. Hence, CAN appeal to the Nigerian government, both at the local, state, and federal, to take concrete steps toward providing palliatives that could quench the thirst of Nigerians.

“The citizens, on their part, should similarly be one another’s keepers by contributing meaningfully to national growth to support to quench the thirst of their neighbors, friends, and the less privileged near them.

“May Jesus through his resurrection power quench the thirst of all humankind this Easter and after.”