Nigeria's Archbishop Kaigama prays for nation’s transformation amid crisis

The Catholic archbishop of Abuja Archdiocese, Ignatius Kaigama, has said that the people of God in Nigeria are hoping to have a taste of a spiritual rebirth at an individual level and a national transformation as a country amid feelings of devastation occasioned by political and economic challenges.

In his Sunday homily, Archbishop Kaigama said he found it regrettable that some Nigerians pride themselves in sinful habits such as murder, abortion, banditry, terrorism, drug/alcohol abuse, as though they are a new moral code to be emulated.

The 64-year-old prelate encouraged the people of God in Africa’s most populous nation to hope in God, saying, “God still offers us a renewed opportunity in grace to heal and to restore. We still hope to experience an individual spiritual rebirth and national transformation even if we now feel devastated, politically, and economically; lost many opportunities, God still makes a promise of regeneration and restoration. What our people suffer is not only a deprivation of social, economic and material needs but also a separation from God, a kind of ‘spiritual exile’. Jesus summons us to come out of the tomb of hopelessness to build again with patience and hope. He is asking us to ‘come out’ of our small tombs of resentment, sadness, fear, regret, and sinfulness. Let us not give in to the false conclusion that everything remains closed in the tomb and ends up in failure. ”

On the recently held elections, Archbishop Kaigama said, “Our elections at different levels may have been imperfect and at worst, manipulated by all who had the expertise and dexterity to do so, but that cannot be the end. We still have a future. Something greater will happen. We should not take God’s silence for granted. Nigerians who cheat, manipulate, and rig, will know sooner than later that the Supreme Judge (God) is not oblivious of their misdeeds.”