Anglican Clergy re-echoes need for Nigerians to live above religious, ethnic considerations

A cleric, Ven Louis Ogarabe, the Cathedral Administrator, Anglican Cathedral Church of St Peter, Umuokanne, Imo State has re-echoed the need for Nigerians to live above religious and ethnic considerations.

Ogarabe made the assertion on Saturday in Umuokanne, near Owerri in his homily at the funeral mass in honour of late Mrs Josephine Iheanacho, mother to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Emeka Iheanacho,Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Nigerian Police Force, Zone 5.

Taking his message from James 4 verses 13 to 17, he said that Nigerians irrespective of religion and ethnicity owe it as a responsibility to one another to consciously live as brothers and sisters and eschew bitterness, rancour, jealousy and hatred just as the early Christians in the bible days did.

He said that by so doing, the issue of insecurity and killings that had bedeviled the country lately would be a thing of the past.

“We wake up daily to the sad news of killings by suspected armed bandits in one part of the country or the other.

” But if only we can begin to live our lives like it was done by the people of old and early Christians by looking out for ourselves as brothers and sisters in love, this issue will be a thing of the past.

“The people perpetrating these evils are taking advantage of our disunity and disagreement in one way or the other to carry out these killings,” he said.

According to the clergy, there is need for all to look out for each other as by so doing individuals will be able to identify who their neighbours are and easily identify a stranger in their midst.

He also said that life was like a vapour and that only God was the owner of life and as such, Nigerians must incorporate the will of God in all they do and live in accordance to the will of God.

He stressed that selflessness, love and sacrifice were some of the virtues and will of God that Christians and indeed Nigerians have to exhibit towards one another, adding that such was the kind of life the deceased lived.

Meanwhile DSP Emeka Iheanacho who was the first child of the deceased in his remarks said that mans existence in life was like a seed planted which only God knows the harvest time.

He said in view of this, there was the need for man to consciously live with the knowledge that only God predetermines the existence of man.

The late Iheanacho died at the age of 72 years.