Bishop Sunday Onuoha, the co-Chair, Interfaith Dialogue Forum for Peace, has enjoined Nigerians to embrace peace and reconciliation for the sake of the younger generation.
The cleric made the call on Sunday, in Umuahia at the 2021 Vision Africa Festival of Carol and Nine Lessons.
Onuoha, the President of Vision Africa, said it is only peace that can heal the land and bring hope to the hopeless.
According to him, Nigerians must shelve their individual differences and embrace peace for the development of the country.
He noted that “this is the time to reach out to one another and reconcile among ourselves.
“Sometimes the tongue and the teeth even have misunderstanding and even in the process of eating the tongue and the teeth quarrel, but they settle,” he said.
The Methodist Church bishop said the significance of the event was to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and for people to come and thank God who had given them everything even when they are not qualified.
Onuoha described Christmas as a time of sharing God’s love, giving to others, “not the time for acquisition of new things.”
In his exaltation taken from Philippians 2:9-11, Pastor Bassey Udoh enjoined Christians to emulate the virtue of humility by Jesus Christ, saying that Jesus humbled himself even until death and for that reason, God highly exalted him.
Udoh, a professor and President of Eastern Nigeria Union Conference of Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Nigeria, said Jesus Christ had paid the ultimate price of victory, “so there is no condemnation to those that belong to him.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that many dignitaries attended the colourful event organised by an Umuahia-based radio station.
Sen. Enyinaya Abaribe, the Senate Minority Leader, one of the many dignitaries at the event, read the Fourth Lesson.
The festival featured different choir groups in Umuahia, including Vision Africa Voices, Tower of David CKC World Bank, The Seventh Day Adventist, Methodist Church Nigeria, Wesley Cathedral and All Saints Anglican Church, among others.