AFTER weeks of intense prayer and fasting that normally characterise the Christian Lenten period, Nigerian Christians join their counterparts worldwide to commemorate Good Friday, the day Jesus paid the ultimate price for the salvation of humanity on the Cross at Calvary.In ordinary circumstances death is celebrated in mourning. But the story of Good Friday is worth telling countless times over if only for its remarkable significance as a climactic turning point in the fulfillment of Gods prophetic liberation strategythat His Son Jesus will come into the world as Redeemer, and achieve the redemption of humanity through his own death on the Cross. Thus, despite the frenzied mob violence that summarily dispatched Jesus, an element of goodness in this Friday, lies in the fulfillment of Gods chosen plan to save His people from sin and condemnation.The celebration of Good Friday represents the entry point of the high drama that is to follow at Easter. Human beings had violated Gods will, and lost the chance of wholesome, meaningful, peaceful life on earth. And above all, they had lost the chance of eternal life with God in heaven even after a miserable existence here below. The world was full of sin, steeped in a life of debauchery, spiralling dangerously into the abyss of death in an environment of chaos and social degradation. The world desperately needed a rescue. Jesus then came with his enlightenment, to save humanity from itself, by doing Gods bidding even unto deatha humiliating death on the Cross. This was the supreme enactment of sacrificial love, which he taught his disciples when he said: Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.Thus on the day of Jesus death Christians engage in a major festivity, rather than pine away in sorrow. This is why this day is called Good Fridaythe day when Jesus paid the price for human salvation; the day when Gods sacrificial love was demonstrated in a supreme manner. This is why this day is marked in our country and elsewhere as a holidaya Great and Holy Day for all Christians.Good Friday this year is coming on the heels of Nigerias legislative and presidential elections that have equally climaxed a long period of high-tension politicking and troubled electoral preparations. In the spirit of service and sacrifice, which is characteristic of the Lenten period, Nigerian politicians would have been expected to approach their political engagements with a contrite disposition, drawing on the lessons Jesus taught by his life and death. But with the level of recrimination, acrimony, violence and corruption that characterised the buildup to the elections, it is worrisome that the spiritual and moral values that should go with our acclaimed religiosity were once again sadly not in evidence in the ongoing competition for power and control of the state machinery.Traces of the well-known electoral heists again sought to take the high ground, while religion and morality were suspended backstage as it were. Even among Christian aspirants, religious imperatives appear sadly to have been on holiday. The degree of improvement witnessed at the elections so far appear to be more a result of improved procedures, monitoring and vigilance on the part of INEC than on account of any serious determination by contestants to play by the rules.By extension, the post-election violence sweeping through swathes of the country equally leaves no room for any doubt that our journey to authentic nationhood is still paved with thorns and thistles, and that our democratic maturation is still some distance away. For too long our political elite has shifted the burden of leadership on anyone but themselves, ensconced in their comfort zones. As Christians in our country and all over the world celebrate in Jesus the greatness that comes through service and the leadership that is expressed in self-sacrifice our own leaders at all levels and of all faiths must recognize the burden of leadership and the enormity of the task before them in the fragile political entity that we call Nigeria.For those who have claimed victory at the polls therefore, this is no time for gloating or partying. Rather, this is a time for sober reflection on Nigerias present circumstances of widespread violence, insecurity, poverty and human degradation. It is time for leaders and politicians to get to work, addressing with all seriousness the critical business of statecraft, constantly sacrificing their own pleasures and selfish individual and group interests towards making Nigeria a sustainable enterprise in the not too distant future. In this way the celebration of Good Friday with its spiritual connotations of self-sacrifice, reconciliation and redemption, would have rubbed off positively on our nation and its people. Just as Christ sacrificed for us, so must we sacrifice for others. Good governance and accountability are universal values that come to mind when we recall what Christ said that greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. We should all be our brothers keepers. We call on Nigerian leaders to make personal sacrifices to salvage a struggling people from unmerited poverty.
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