Today, Christians, representing various denominations throughout the expansive Christiandom worldwide, would amidst pomp and pageantry, mark the birthday of Jesus Christ roundly acknowledged as the undisputable indomitable Son of the Almighty God.
December 25 every year is set aside by Christians across the globe to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in appreciation of what He did hundreds of years ago during His first coming, through His exemplary conduct and invaluable spiritual teachings to save mankind, especially Christians, from sins and eternal destruction.
Although Jesus is known to have lived for a brief period of 33 years, He, however, was able to touch millions of lives positively, irrespective of religious, political, racial or occupational affiliations. This, indeed, was particularly why He succeeded to a large extent in endearing Himself to immeasurable number of believers or followers across the world even several years after successfully accomplishing the arduous earthly task given Him by His father, David.
The royal child of Virgin Mary was born of David’s line in a manger which was a typical eating trough for horses and cattle.
However, in spite of his poor and lowly background, news concerning glorious birth of the new-born King and Saviour of mankind resonated everywhere. Throughout His lifetime, Jesus was humble, helpful, caring and willing to demonstrate exemplary conduct, as a role model for others to emulate.
In many ways, He helped considerably, in alleviating the plight of the poor and also practised what He preached. As a visionary leader, He rendered selfless service with unalloyed dedication and unwavering determination without expecting any reward.
In this particular regard, we recall that in spite of His enviable royal position, He humbled Himself by washing the feet of His disciples on a particular occasion. This further attests to the fact that whenever the need arises, good and responsible leaders should step down from their high horses to render diligent and life-saving services to their followers.
Throughout His memorable sojourn on earth, Jesus, through His motivational teachings, miracles and exemplary lifestyle, demonstrated convincingly that leadership in whatever form or shape, anywhere in the world, should be about selfless service to humanity. Essentially, it is because of the uncommon behavioural attributes of unconditional forgiveness, unwavering humility, unalloyed honesty, unswerving diligence, selfless service and exemplary leadership, Jesus exhibited that millions of Christians worldwide, have continued to celebrate him every December 25.
However, rather than celebrate Him this day alone every year, Christians should celebrate Him every day. This is the only way to prove that it is not only December 25 every year that Christians should imbibe the sterling attributes of Jesus. All these characteristics should be seen every day in the lives of Christians.
Celebration of birthday of Jesus will be meaningless if Christians fail to let these wonderful life-changing attributes reflect in the way they conduct themselves, as well as the manner they relate with Muslims and practitioners of other religions.
We congratulate Christians in Nigeria on this auspicious occasion and wish them happy celebration. They should however, use the unique opportunity to pray fervently for unity, peace and stability of the country, especially as the crucial general elections are fast approaching.
While wining and dining, we urge them to regard the celebration as period for sober reflection and shun acts that could destabilise the country. Like Jesus Christ did in His lifetime, they should promote peaceful co-existence, love and unity, among their fellow citizens, irrespective of political, religious, ethnic and cultural inclinations and avoid tendencies capable of dividing the country and the citizenry.
There is no doubt that Nigeria is currently going through difficult times, especially with rising wave of criminality, dissatisfaction among the citizenry, increasing rate of poverty and unemployment due to bad leadership and poor governance at various levels.
This is why Christians, in conjunction with practitioners of other religions, should pray that God intervenes in Nigeria’s affairs by enabling the citizenry elect God-fearing, responsible, responsive, honest and incorruptible leaders in 2019 so that the country can move forward.
Christians, Muslims and others should this time around, shun vote-buying, vote-selling and other forms of election malpractice, otherwise, the next four years will be continuation of untold hardships, poor governance, poverty, unemployment, decaying infrastructure, protracted labour crises, unbridled corruption, rising death rate and scarcity of essential commodities.
We implore all Nigerians, irrespective of religious differences to be united by voting for those that have the capacity to tackle the challenges facing the country rather than those that will give excuses for poor performance. This is why INEC and other relevant stakeholders should allow votes of the electorate to count to ensure peace, as Jesus preached, reigns continuously in Nigeria.
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