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*MR. President: please pull us down from this cross*
Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, Catholic Diocese of Sokoto
Easter message 2025
1: A happy Easter for you and millions of compatriots and women. For us Christians, this is the most important event in the history of our faith. It is the season of the cross, the season of the triumph of Christ on death. This triumph has been marked by the blind passion of those who have crucified innocence. I am therefore using the metaphor of the cross to attract attention to the suffering and afflictions that have affected our country in recent years. These suffering have been marked by a culture of brutality and ferocity have never witnessed the history of our dear country. As a whole, they put our country outside the supplier of human civilization. Throughout the country, every day, innocent citizens are kidnapped and kept in the most inhuman conditions. A dark ball of death hangs languidly from north to south. It is impossible to find a house, family or community that has not been captured in the cusp of this ferocity. Now, Mr. President, Nigeria, is reaching a breaking point. The nation is gradually becoming a huge national morgue. Mr. President, with a greater sense of urgency, hurry to make us down this cross of evil.
2: Mr. President, we all admit that you have not erected this cross nor did you have carried out our collective crucifixion. Nonetheless, the Nigerians dangled and bleeding on this cross of pain and senseless suffering for too long. A culture of cynicism and doubt for our ability to guarantee peace for ourselves pervades our land. In fact, the majority of our citizens believe that there is no hope in sight. However, for us as Christians, hope is the anchor on which we hange all our hopes (EB. 6:19). Now it’s time to fill and renew that hope.
3: With broken navigation aid, our journey to size is threatened. Yet, in the midst of all this, we Christians are forced to look at Jesus, the author and the finitor of our faith (hebr. 12: 2). In times of deep moral and physical crises, we are often tempted, like the scribes and the elderly to ask Jesus to test themselves by going down from the cross (Matt. 27:40). However, we must learn to look at the cross as the source of our pride (Gal: 14). Therefore, these times of great suffering should be times of hope, hope beyond human imagination, a hope that, as Saint Paul assures us, does not disappoint (Rom 5: 5). Mr. President renewed our hope by bringing us down this cross of brutality and suffering.
4: We believe that not everything is lost. Our hope has a sign in the Holy Father, Pope Francis, who last year declared 2025 this year, the year of hope with the theme, pilgrims of hope. The Pope appreciates the fact that pilgrims often sail against the hard currents of a broken world characterized by violence, pain, suffering, tribulation and death. The Pope has declared: uncertainty about the future can sometimes give rise to conflicting feelings, ranging from safe trust to learning, from serenity to anxiety, from solid condemnation to performance and doubt. Often we come across people who are discouraged, pessimistic and cynical on the future as if nothing could bring their happiness. The road to our collective discouragement in Nigeria has been placed by predes, killers, wilds and ravenous predators who threaten to invade our nation. Mr. President, immediately releases our dear country of these forces of darkness and breaks down to us from this cynicism cross.
5: Mr. President, hunger, disease and desolation chase the earth. We still believe that removing the subsidies was the right decision. We note that the country now has a huge volume of resources in its national reserves. For over ten years, agriculture has become one of the most dangerous pre-occupations in our country. Ridenimensivo the obvious warning that the simple palliative distribution decreases the dignity of citizens. We remained between the rock of doubt and the difficult place of despair. Make food safety a fundamental human right to all citizens. Mr. President, please pull us down from this painful hunger cross.
6: A few years ago, some of our public officials confessed to having brought our current killers to our country as a strategy for having staged the government of the day and to obtain power. However strange it may seem, today we have seen cancer of insecurity and violence has been metastatized. Now, this cancer threatens the foundations of our common humanity. The bandits are not only incorporated in every sphere of our life, but threaten to destroy everything that holds our communities together. This self -destructive cancer has invaded our communities and the kidnapping is now a dog whistle to undermine the structure and foundations of our country. Now we hang the cross to the mercy of these forces of darkness. Mr. President, please knocks down to this cross of insecurity.
7: Finally, we are confident that the majority of citizens of our country wants to live in peace with each other. However, allowing this insecurity to persist all forms of goodwill that this or any government in Nigeria will marry. We have all the ingredients to create a toxic mix of violence that can escape control. At this moment, frustration has penetrated every spectrum of our society especially because the government and its security agencies seem to have become largely spectators in the dance of death that has passed our country. Are we in a dilemma now and the question is simple: is the persistence of hosicity is a declaration of the lack of ability of our men and women in uniform, or is it a proof that those who are at the top are reaping the fruits of the financing of their war machine? In other words, are the Nigerian lambs sacrificed to an unknown God? Mr. President, takes a step forward, arrives at the finish and bring us down this cross of shame.
8: The resurrection of Jesus equips Christians to face the challenges of life with confidence. At Easter, we must remember that the Lord’s law is written in our hearts (Rom2: 15). Structural deformities, iniquities and corruption of our country are not an excuse to make us disappoint. We are the light of the world, a city set on a hill. We are endowed with the light of Christ to drive out the darkness that threatens to swallow our country. We collectively renew our commitment and the hope of building a society after the mind of our Creator. I wish you, Mr. President, a Happy Easter. Blessings and a happy Easter to all Nigerians.
