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Nigeria: Priests Task Yar'Adua On Women
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Leadership (Abuja)
24 March 2008
Posted to the web 24 March 2008
As Christians across the world celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ yesterday, Rev. Fr. Aloy Ikekwe, has called on President Umaru Yar'Adua to create more political opportunities for women so as to accelerate the growth of the nation.
Rev. Fr. Ikekwe made the call yesterday in a sermon he delivered at St. Mulumba's Catholic Parish, Abakaliki, during a special church service to mark this year's Easter celebration.
He said creating opportunities for women was a sure way of making Nigeria an economic and socio-political super power.
He said many countries in the world had experimented this and came out with good results.
Ikekwe drew his lesson from the Bible story of Mary Magdalene as written in John 20:1-9.
Ikekwe said as God used women to proclaim the news of Christ's resurrection, He can also use them to liberate many nations.
The clergyman noted that government could achieve more when women were placed to control various strategic positions.
"The activities of Prof. Dora Akunyili of NAFDAC is a litmus test if Nigerians want to gain from what women can do," he added.
He praised the immediate past administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo for according up to 30 per cent of political appointments to women and urged the present government to emulate him.
"Obasanjo appointed up to 30 per cent of women into positions of trust. My thinking is that the present administration should try to raise that to 50 per cent for this country to move forward," he said.
The clergyman advised the congregation to always treat women as special gift from God, noting that the Millennium Development Goals of the UN valued them as such.
On the Easter festivity, Ikekwe urged the faithful to use the period for sober reflection on the teachings of Jesus Christ.
He said rather than engage in excessive merry making, believers should try to extend love and care to the needy as a way of renewing their faith in God.
In another sermon in Jos, the Plateau Sate capital, another Catholic priest Rev. Fr Vincent Fazing, urged Christians to focus on heavenly inheritance
"since Jesus Christ has paid for it by dying on the cross."
Fazing made the call in a homily at St. Louis Catholic Church, Jos, to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus from the death.
He said as Christians, "the Lord's resurrection should make you look up for the things in heaven."
The cleric said Christians had the problems of getting their priorities right and implored them to use the Easter lessons to focus on Christ.
He said: "As Christians, you should seek the kingdom of God first and His righteousness and everything will be added to you."
He explained that Christians had no problem in focusing their attention on God because Christ died on the cross to set them free.
The high point of the celebration was the renewal of the sacrament of baptism by the congregation. More than 100 faithful received the sacrament of First Holy Communion.
On his part, the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Anthony Cardinal Okogie, in Lagos noted that lack of love was the major problem militating against the attainment of global peace.
Okogie said that "Fraud, cheating, deceit, lies, envy, terrorism, assassinations, oppression, cruelty, jealousy and selfishness are some lingering problems which continue to stare us all in the face".
In his Easter homily entitled "The message of Love," the Cardinal lamented that Christians were always ready and willing to join those in the habit of condemning others.
"The end result is that more often, we are friends to Caesar and not friends of Jesus," he said.
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Okogie, however, enjoined all Christians to work for peace and justice at all times, pointing out that God's community was always guided by love and service.
The cardinal said the relevance of Jesus' passion was for all Christians to be prepared to serve others as well as to transform to "living sacrifices acceptable to God".
Okogie asked Christians to join in the fight to eradicate bribery and corruption from their communities and be honest and just in all their activities.
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