Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said that despite the persistent challenges facing Nigeria, God’s promise of a great nation will soon come to pass.
Osinbajo, while seeking to rally Nigerians and people of faith to see beyond the vicissitudes of the season in the country, expressed his optimism that Nigeria will become an oasis of peace, security and prosperity in Africa and beyond.
The vice president delivered this message of greater Nigeria yesterday at the ongoing 108th annual convention of the Nigerian Baptist Convention themed “Moving Forward: Finishing the Race with Joy,” at the church’s Conference Centre along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
According to him, although Nigeria is going through storms and adversity, the country will overcome its challenges and realise its aspirations because of the promises of God regarding the outstanding greatness ahead of the country.
He said: “There is a promise of God for this nation, that this nation will prosper, that this nation will be the epicentre of the astounding economic and scientific developments of the 21st Century, that we will create here in Nigeria an oasis of peace, security and prosperity such as has never been seen before on this continent and beyond.
“This is the promise of God. But today the clouds are overcast, the promise seems impossible, as it was with the children of Israel after leaving Egypt on the way to the promised land…
“The journey to the promise of God for Nigeria is going through storms and adversity, but the end will be better than the beginning, weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning.
“I am completely convinced that nobody, no group, no ideology, can defeat the promise of God for the greatness of Nigeria. I see it clearly, I know it like my own face.”
Osinbajo urged Nigerians not to allow the challenges facing Nigeria to make them profess negative utterances or thoughts about their country.
“We must not sound like the children of Israel fearful before Goliath, petrified and complaining at the Red Sea as Pharoah and his hostile hosts approached. We are the light of this world, we are the voice of God in a confused and discouraged world, we must speak the things that God has promised as though they are because they will come to pass.
“The clouds cannot deny the existence of the sun, they may cover it for a while but they must give way to the glorious brightness of sunshine,” he stated.
He commended the outgoing National President of the Nigerian Baptist Convention who is also the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev Supo Ayokunle, saying “from his humble days leading the small flock in Ibadan to the headship of the Baptist Convention, superintending over the affairs of 13,654 churches and 8,000,637 members and then suddenly being propelled to the rocky and the difficult intersection between politics and religion as the 6th President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, the umbrella body of Nigeria’s millions of Christians, the man we celebrate today has seen it all, adversity, tribulation, enemies from within and without.”
