Florence Sadiku
THE National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Barrister Julius Abure has called on Nigerians to let the lessons learned from the birth of Jesus Christ guide our lives individually and collectively in order to make the world a beautiful place to live in.
“Christmas is a period for the remembrance of the birth of Jesus Christ. However, beyond that, it is the remembrance of the day Heaven came down to the earth for the sake of the redemption of mankind. “His coming was to bring joy to the world by reconciling humanity with divinity.
“He came to make the world a better place but today that purpose is being defeated by the evil actions of men. The destiny of nations is being changed by men in the position of authority and the will of God is being continuously subverted by power hijackers.
“Nigeria is an example of a nation which God created and ensured that the abundance of deposits of resources is huge enough to make us a giant nation. Nigeria must have been created as a perfect example of ‘heaven on earth’ but leadership has remained the bane and today, despite the abundance of resources, Nigeria is ranked as one of the poorest nations in the world. “Today, most Nigerians would be celebrating Christmas with empty stomachs due to bad leadership.
“A few days ago, the APC-led government with fanfare and heart-thumping, came up with a policy that guarantees a reduction by half of transportation for holiday markers. And I sometimes question the level of advice this government gets.
“In a nation of over two hundred million persons, the government employed the services of only 5 transport companies, in addition to the rail services which completely excluded a particular Christian-dominated zone. The beneficiaries of this social scheme will be less than 0.05 percent of Nigerians.
“The question has always been, what happens after the Yuletide when the scheme would cease to function? Would the government also subsidize the transport system in Nigeria as it boasted months ago?
“Schools will be opening in early January, how do the poverty-stricken Nigerian grapple with that chaos waiting to happen? Did it ever occur to this government that a good percentage of those Nigerians travelling may never return to their base due to economic strangulation perpetuated by this government as one of its economic policies?
“In all this uncertainty facing millions of Nigerians, I will still wish Nigerians a happy celebration and also plead with them to keep fate alive because a new Nigeria is not just possible but is already on the horizon.”
Eighteen-Eleven Media