By Iliya Kure
Kaduna (Nigeria) — It was an atmosphere of praise and worship at ECWA Gospel Romi New Extension Kaduna in Nigeria, where congregation on sunday devoted time to pray for Nigeria. The sunday worship was to mark the country’s 56th Independence Anniversary.
Overseer of the Church, Pastor Bulus Ibrahim read from Isaiah chapter 62 verse 1, saying God will not rest until He (God) met the needs of His children.
The Pastor also read from second Chronicles chapter 7 verses 11 to 16. Where the Bible admonishes christians to rise up, repent and pray to God for Him to heal their land.
Pastor Ibrahim stressed on the need for Nigerians to stop all forms of evil, and approach God in true repentance and worship, emphasising that as the precondition for God to answer their prayer and return their nation on the path of greatness.
“You must drop all your heavy load and repent from the baggage you are carrying, whether it is idolatry, fornication, stealing, or whatever you are carrying.
“God works with people who genuinely seek His face. If we want him to heal our land we must show true repentance and turn away from all wicked ways. Go is not far, it is our sin that has kept Him away from answering our prayers,” he sais
While leading the congregation in prayers, Pastor Ibrahim stressed that christians ought to pray fervently for Nigeria to overcome its numerous challenges and subdue any hinderance to its growth as a nation.
He lamented that Nigeria was not showing sign of growth – the younger generation not taking up leadership positions from their parents, but remained in a situation where older generation kept coming back to rule again and again, several years after ruling the country.
“We need to pray for God to help our nation; we have Obasanjo and Buhari coming back to rule our country, each of them the second time – something is wrong, are we saying we don’t have people who are capable? When other nations are adjusting and preparing the next generations for leadership, Nigeria is handing over realms of leadership to older generations that are suppose to take advisory role; something is wrong with our nation! and we need to pray and stand in the gap for it to move forward,” he said.
Worshippers in the church who spoke with AFRICA PRIME NEWS congratulated Nigeria and called on political leaders to pay attention to youth development.
Nigeria got its independence from British rule on 1st October 1960. A country with a population of nearly 180 million people, remained heavily dependent on oil as the major source of income – accounting for more than 75% of its foreign exchange earnings.
Prior to independence and up to the 1980’s the country was doing well in agriculture, which contributed heavily to its earnings – today the country import many agricultural products for consumption.
Currently, Nigeria practices democracy and is ruled by President Muhammadu Buhari, a man that led the country between 1984 – 1985 through a military coup that ousted democratically elected President Shehu Shagari.
