with his latest article.
The article aimed at wishing Nigerians Merry
Christmas is titled hope springs eternal joy.
Read it below:
There is so much death in this country. So many
tears. So much evil. So much betrayal. So much
sadness and so many tragedies. So much corruption
and deceit. So many shattered dreams, broken
hearts and wounded souls. So much injustice and
insensitivity. So much greed and want. So much
bloodshed, blood-letting and blood-spilling.
Welcome to Nigeria- the Federal Republic of
Shattered Dreams. A country in which sadism,
failure, iniquity, injustice, wickedness, persecution,
cover-ups, lies and abuse of power are enthroned. A
land in which "men of God" do not pray but instead
sell the anointing and buy private jets. A country
where common decency, kindness and human
compassion has no place. A nation in which the rulers
pay homage to the baphomet and make open
sacrifices to Satan.
A country where ignorance and mediocrity is exalted
and in which excellence and knowledge is scorned. A
nation in which truth has no place and in which those
that tell it are hated and treated with contempt. I
weep for my country and each day I pray that God
delivers her from the blood-sucking and relentless
demons that plague and afflict her. Yet, despite all,
hope springs eternal.
Today our nation stands at a crossroad and it is left
for us to decide which path we choose to take. Do we
take the path of despair and dishonour and give up
on our country? Or do we rise above it all and latch
on to the promises of God for our land and for our
people? With biting poverty, mounting hopelessness,
a bleeding economy, youth restiveness,
unprecedented violence, brazen acts of terrorism and
all manner of vices and evil thriving in the land one
wonders how things got so bad.
The foundation for our current situation was laid
many years ago and since that time we have seen so
much suffering and failure at virtually all levels. We
were plagued with leaders who lacked vision, who
lacked intellect, who lacked sincerity of purpose and
who were antagonistic to those that dared to
challenge their visionless and purposeless policies.
Our country is currently bedevilled with so much
negativity that it is easy to look around and just give
up. Yet I say that we must never give up because
"hope springs eternal".
The bible says though the night may be dark yet "joy
comes in the morning". The wise ones say you
cannot have a message without a mess. You cannot
have a testimony without a test. You cannot get to
the top of the mountain without first going to the
bottom of the valley. This is true. And out of Nigeria's
"mess" shall surely come her "message". Out of
Nigeria's "test" shall surely come her "testimony".
We have been to the "bottom of the valley" and
therefore we shall get to the "top of the mountain".
Our dream for a better Nigeria shall never die and
neither can our collective prayers be in vain. I refuse
to give up because I know that the God that I serve
never fails. He alone rules in the affairs of men. He
alone forges the destiny of nations. Out of a deep
void and formlessness He ordered the creation of the
world. He established it by the power of His word and
He gave us dominion over it.
In the same way He created Nigeria for His purpose
and for His glory and that purpose and glory shall
surely be established. It shall come to pass and it will
be manifest to the entire world. We shall see it and
we shall be established in it as a nation and as a
people. If God can do it for others, He can do it for us
too. We can be great and, by the grace of God, we
shall be great. This is my dream and this is what I
see. And believe me when I tell you that it is
prophetic.
A Nigeria where every man and woman, regardless of
faith, ethnicity, status or political persuasion finds a
common cause and relishes in our collective
humanity. A Nigeria where the rich have a conscience
and the poor have hope. A Nigeria where joy and
peace reign supreme and where bombings and
killings are a thing of the past.
A Nigeria where the descendants of Ishmael and
Isaac and the adherents of the two great Abrahamic
faiths of Islam and Christianity live together in peace,
harmony and mutual respect. A Nigeria where the
secularity of the state is respected yet where God is
revered and honoured by all. A Nigeria where the
knowledge and fear of the Living God reigns in the
hearts and minds of the people.
A Nigeria where every man is His brother's keeper,
where leaders show compassion to those that they
lead, where justice is done to all and where political
persecution has no place. A Nigeria where decency is
rewarded, where dissent is tolerated, where non-
conformity is encouraged and where equity is
enthroned. That is the Nigeria of my dream.
A Nigeria where youth unemployment is low and
where every individual, no matter how high or low,
can aspire to any position and live his or her dream.
That is the Nigeria of my dream. A Nigeria where
human life and human dignity is sacrosanct and
where fairness is the watchword of every soul. That is
the Nigeria of my dream.
I have no fears about the future of this great nation
because the God that I serve never fails. The bible
says the nations are "as a drop of water before Him".
He sits above the circles of the earth and He counts
the earth as His footstool. Yet despite His sheer
awesomeness and majesty, with Him lies great
compassion and mercy.
Once we return to Him, acknowledge Him, honour
Him and are led and guided by Him, He will restore
us and shower us with His blessings. The Lord awaits
us to make the right choice. We either continue to
wallow in self-delusion, wickedness, greed, murder,
the persecution of perceived enemies, the abuse of
power, evil and insensitivity or we desist from our
wicked ways and turn to Him.
I am persuaded that once we make the right choice
our date with destiny, as a people and as a nation,
will come far sooner than we can possibly imagine. In
his book titled "The Wretched of the Earth" Frantz
Fanon said the following- "each generation must, out
of relative obscurity, discover it's mission and fulfill it
or betray it." Past generations in Nigeria have not
lived up to expectation. This is the bitter truth.
Yet there is still hope as long as we have faith. That
hope and faith is our blessed assurance and it lives in
our minds and hearts. We know that the Lord will fix
it. We know that He is "more than able". We know
that He is a man of war whom none can resist and we
know that He restores, redeems and rebuilds even
the most broken and wretched walls.
Dr. Martin Luther King jnr., after delivering his
celebrated and inspiring "I have a dream" speech,
was felled by an assassin's bullet on April 4 1968. To
those that killed him, his dream died with him. Yet
they were wrong. They did not know that great
dreams, once birthed, never die. That is why the
Word of God said "if the princes of this world had
known they would not have crucified the Lord of
Glory".
If those that murdered Jesus, and the devil that
inspired them to do it, had known that He would
honour His word and rise up three days later they
would not have crucified him. They persecuted Him,
they humiliated Him, they beat Him, they tortured
Him, they spat on Him and they killed Him yet they
could not kill His dream or abort His mission. His
dream lived on and became a reality for all mankind
to see.
It was the same with Martin Luther King. They killed
him but his mission had already been achieved and
his vision came to pass 45 years after his sacrificial
and selfless death. This is indeed the stuff of which
dreams are made. Great things are birthed in great
dreams and if you dare to dream nothing is
impossible.
I have a dream for Nigeria. I have a dream that one
day Nigerians will see themselves as Nigerians
before anything else and they will not regard their
country and its people as a collection of strange bed-
fellows that do not love or trust one another.
Yet this dream can only be fulfilled when those
amongst us that call ourselves leaders preach,
practice and display discipline, temperance, holiness,
morality, restraint, tolerance, mercy and the fear of
God in the conduct of our affairs. It can only be made
manifest when we stand up and fight against evil,
tyranny, injustice, indecency bad governance, the
abuse of power , political persecution and sheer
wickedness.
Our dream can only be brought to reality when love
is the motivating factor in all that we do. The Lord
commands us to love our neighbour as we do
ourselves. That is the cornerstone and the foundation
of our faith and it is in that faith and that resolve that
our hope for a better and greater Nigeria lies. I have a
dream that Nigeria will be what God wants her to be,
a great and powerful nation that is dedicated to the
Living God and that will act as a shining example and
a beacon of light for all to see.
I assure you that despite the dashed hopes and
unbearable suffering of millions of our people over
the last 52 years, our dream still lives and the Lord
shall not forsake us. Our land and our people may
seem blighted, in despair, depressed, repressed and
confused. It may appear as if there is no hope for a
better tomorrow and that nothing will ever change.
It may seem as if the Lord has forgotten us and it
may appear that our story is one of recurrent failure
and shattered dreams. Yet this is not so. I have come
here today to tell you that, despite all we see and
hear, it is not over for us as a people and as a nation.
I have come here today to tell you that we as a
people have a date with destiny.
I have come here today to tell you that Nigeria and
the Nigerian dream lives on and that it shall be made
manifest for all to see in the fullness of time. I
therefore urge you to be strong, to hold your heads
up high, to be proud of who and what you are and to
stand firm. The vision is for an appointed time.
Though it may tarry it shall not prove false. Just hold
on and always remember that, despite all, "hope
springs eternal'. God bless you and God bless
Nigeria.
Merry Christmas and happy new year.
Sent From David Aniemeka
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