CHRISTIAN Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Bible Society of Nigeria (BSN) in Kaduna have thrown their weight behind President Muhammadu Buhari on his anti-corruption war, saying Buhari is the messiah that Nigeria needs to succeed as a nation.
The two Christian umbrella bodies stated this at the closing of their annual one week of prayers for unity of the church and the country, entitled, “Universal Week of Prayers”.
Speaking to newsmen in an interview at the event held at Our Lady Catholic Church, Independence Way, Kaduna, Chairman of the Planning Committee of the annual prayers, Pastor Adeyemi Isaac said, the level of national resources carted away by few individuals was unacceptable, when majority of Nigerians are languishing in poverty.
According to him, “We like the anti-corruption war the government is bringing forth, because it is from there a lot of things are being revealed, which we know nothing about. The amount of money we hear from the media that people have gone away with. It is really embarrassing, when poverty has eaten so deep into the country that, it remains only for us to be eating from the dustbin, like the late Umaru Dikko said. But, you can see that many are getting close to the dustbin. We are only praying to God that this will not happen to us, in Jesus name.
“Buhari is the Messiah for this country. God really sent him. You can even see the way he won the election. It is a miracle. That is why we will continue to pray for him to succeed. We believe whenever he will be leaving, whether one term or two terms, depending on God, whenever he will be leaving, we believe this country will not remain the same again. And whoever will take over from him will either carry on with his programmes or God will not let him be there.
“Thank God, we are witnessing change in the country, the church too must follow suit with this positive change. What are we talking about? The church must change from the past way of doing things to new way that is being united, no matter our denomination. We must pray together for the country and Kaduna State in particular.
“Part of why we are here is for this prayer to lay a good foundation for this year. Throughout the year, we don’t want to experience any bad thing. And any bad thing that is coming, we pray to Almighty God to suppress it.
“The issue of Boko Haram, we are praying to God to help us, not only to suppress it, but terminate them and remove them from the surface of the earth entirely. Because we have lost so many souls. So many souls have been lost for nothing, children, women, men, so many of them are displaced. Look at where they are. No matter what you give to them, they cannot be comforted like in their homes. Their homes have been destroyed, their farmlands destroyed,” he said.
He blamed the security challenges like insurgency, pipelines vandalism, kidnapping and militancy in the country on poverty created by unemployment.
He however expressed optimism that President Muhammadu Buhari will succeed in his plan to resuscitate comatose industries and create jobs for millions of Nigeria youths.
Asked whether Buhari can still lead Nigeria at 78 by 2019. Pastor Isaac said “Even if Buhari contests for second term at 78, Buhari is just an entity, he has advisers and ministers around him, he will still perform, because he can delegate people who will stand by him in truth.”