Speaking during New Year Mass at Our Lady Queen of Nigeria Catholic Pro-Cathedral, Garki Abuja, he pointed out that no politician can remain in office for ever.
He said: “That is why I always plead with my fellow politicians that yes, we must play the politics but let us take the interest of the country more than our own individual interest and as we continue to play the politics in that direction, leaders will come and go but the country will stay.
“Luckily, we have a constitution that nobody will be a governor or president forever. It is only in the parliament that you can be there till you die.
“As long as we consider the interest of our country, children, grand children and we begin to plan for the next generation instead of wasting all our energies to think about ourselves, before we get to the next 100 years, the country will be better. Nigeria can even change in the next few years and things will be better for everybody. By God’s grace, this country will be better in 2014.
“Even in the power sector that people always make reference to, since we have been able to do first phase of privatization and generation and distribution have been handed over to the private sector, we believe that even before the middle of this year, power will be reasonably stable and that will stimulate the economy. I believe and I am convinced that 2014 will be a better year than 2013.Surely, the country will get to where it wants to get to.”
The President observed that January 1, 2014 was a special day because of the amalgamation of Northern and Southern Protectorates on that date in 1914, saying, “today is a special day, very special. 1st January, 2014 because we have been informing you that the amalgamation of our country to what we now call Nigeria happened on the 1st of January, 1914. Today, modern Nigeria is 100 years old.”
The President noted that the formal ceremony will take place by late February as he revealed that the programme will soon be advertised “for all Nigerians to see and know the areas they will participate because it is a programme for all of us.”
He added: “So, today, we are not just celebrating the new year but we are also celebrating a special New Year. A New Year that Nigeria, modern Nigeria is 100 years. And we use this period to begin to think what will be Nigeria in the next 100 years.
“Not just to celebrate 100 years of the amalgamation of Northern Protectorates and Southern Protectorates to make the modern Nigeria, but what will be the future of our children, our grandchildren in the next 100 years. That is what occupies our mind. That is what we must all focus our attention on.”
President Jonathan also observed that the current challenges facing Nigeria were not limited to the country, saying,”the world as a whole is facing a lot of challenges within this period. If you put on your television and if you turn the newspapers, there are always breaking news and the breaking news are not positive news.Whenever I see breaking news, you know there is one crisis somewhere in the world.
“We are reading about crises everywhere. And our country too unfortunately, we also have our own fair share of crises. The issue of Boko Haram and the excesses of the militia groups, kidnapping in southern Nigeria. Boko Haram terrorist activities in the northern part of the country but government is committed.
“Some of these challenges we have been seeing came at a point that our security architecture was not properly designed for that. We are improving everyday. We have our challenges but there is significant progress.”
The President assured that he will continue to work hard to put an end to the crisis with the support and prayers of the people.
On the economy, he remarked that it would move in the right direction in the New Year, with efforts intensified to create more jobs.
He further stated: “With your commitment, with your prayers for us as a nation, we will surely get to where we want to go. As we enter this New Year, we will surely get our economy to continue to move in the right direction and in the direction we want it to move.
“We shall continue to work hard to make sure that not just that the economy will be growing based on economic parameters and indices, but that jobs are available for our young men and women and that food is cheap in our markets for ordinary people to buy and eat. That is the commitment of government.”
Jonathan said he would work with other elected representatives and officers of government”to ensure good governance to make sure that Nigerians will get what generally we call the dividends of democracy.”
He called for prayers as he noted that “and luckily we are in a Christian congregation, we believe that no matter what an individual think he is, if God doesn’t want you to succeed in achieving anything, you will not. You will get so close to it but at the end of the day, you will not get it.”
Also speaking, the Senate President, Senator David Mark, promised that the National Assembly would cooperate with the executive to ensure that security challenges in the country were overcome, saying, “We must not politicize the issue of security in this country. In 2014, we will ensure that security challenges in Nigeria are overcome.”
In his homily, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja Diocese, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, also noted that Nigeria’s current challenges were a global phenomenon itemized by Pope Francis in his 2013 Christmas message.
“My brothers and sisters, these problems are not only in our nation. You only need to read the Pope’s letter to realize that all over the world, we have problems of corruption, human trafficking, drug abuse not to talk of wars and fratricidal killings. We ask you Lord to come to our aid and defend our nation,” he said.
The Cardinal noted that despite the challenges, Nigeria was still better that many countries asno onewas being molested for practicing his or her faith.
He stressed that respect for each other’s faith was an essential ingredient for peace and unity, pointing outhowever that some clergymen in the country were not helpful to the effort to sustain peace and unity in the country.
He said: “In our country Nigeria, do we see each other as brothers and sisters? We form cycles of exclusivity. The way some clergy leaders talk and behave, it is as if we don’t have one God. What a tragedy.”
“Our society is polarized more along ethnic lines. There is more need for fraternity among the churches otherwise we shall not be the salt and light of the world.”
On the issue of corruption and security in the country, he prayed to God to grant the leaders the wisdom to do what was right.
Among those present at the mass were, Chief of Staff, Mike Ogiadomhe, Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Kingsley Kuku, Senator Philip Aduda, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati and the President’s mother, Helen Jonathan.
Source: Tribune
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