New Year prayer for peace – Part 2

Intervene in our affairs Lord, and let those who claim to know you in this country realise that the God of peace is never glorified by human violence and that those who use religious justification to slaughter their neighbours are blaspheming. Come down today Lord, and heal my people of their blindness, and free our people and our country permanently from the endless cycle of violence and war. Help my people to recognise that just as darkness cannot drive away from the darkness, and fire cannot quench the fire, violence can never bring peace.

Lord, grant us this year the generosity of heart that we may let go of our anger and resentment over the injustices of succeeding governments since independence, over the atrocities of the civil war, over the gross violations of human rights during the profligate regimes of Babangida, Abacha, Obasanjo, and Jonathan, and over the gross ineptitude, the reckless nepotism and the grave impunity of the ongoing Buhari regime. Disarm the hearts of the vile and vicious Boko Haram jihadists of the Borno and Yobe States. Disarm the hearts of the psychopathic bandits of Katsina and Zamfara States. Disarm the hearts of murderous herdsmen of Kaduna and Benue States. Disarm the hearts of the venal and mercenary kidnappers now operating in every part of our national landscape. And disarm the hearts of the ethnic warlords, the tribal champions and religious bigots all over the place, who have become adept at exploiting and manipulating these identities for selfish gain. Visit us again, and teach us to forgive even these notorious enemies of your people, for a world without forgiveness is a cold world of endless strife.

This year Lord, grant that there may be a moratorium on all forms of insurgency and banditry in our land. Grant that there may be a ceasefire in the hearts of the vengeful jihadists of Baga and Zambamari in Borno State, and the reckless bandits of Talata Mafara and Kaura-Namoda in Zamfara State. Let these criminal gangs sheath their swords and bury their hatchets. Grant also that there may be a cessation to the politics of exclusion and the weaponization of poverty, which is now generating so much bitterness and anger, as well as resentment and malice across the land. Visit us in this New Year Lord, and lead us through the process of repentance, reconciliation and restoration, for that is what our nation requires today.

Make all things new in our own day as you promised in the Book of Revelation. Fulfil the promise you made through the Prophet Ezekiel that: “I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them; I will take the stony heart out of their bodies and give them a heart of flesh…” In this New Year, Oh God of Majesty and Rock of Ages, I pray that the dream of Prophet Isaiah concerning the time of cosmic reconciliation may come true for us in this country: Let the Yoruba lion and the Hausa leopard eat straw together with the Igbo wolf and let the innocent Tiv child play into the hole of the Fulani cobra, with no hurt and no harm.

Let the dreaded tigers of Kagoro in Kaduna South cultivate friendship with the fierce cheetahs of Barnawa in Kaduna North. Let the ferocious dogs of Bukuru in Jos wag their tails at the wild cats of Jos North. Let the fierce IPOB militants of Aba and Onitsha and the trigger happy functionaries of Operation Crocodile Smile drop their deadly weapons, and celebrate together the beauty of the common endowment we call Nigeria. Yes Lord, let the bloodhounds of the PDP and the ferocious dogs of APC, as well as the blood-thirsty canines of all other parties, experience a transformation, so, as to stop approaching politics with a killer’s touch. Let them begin to see politics as the art of nurturing life and building society, not an exercise in mutual acrimony and elite brigandage. Look down from on high, Lord, that the winds of righteousness may blow from Sokoto to Kano, and that the waters of justice may flow from Lagos to Calabar.

Visit this land this year Lord that right may dwell on the highlands of Jos and Obudu, and equity may flourish in the creeks of Warri and Yenagoa. Let your justice rolls like a rolling stone over the mountains of Adamawa and Taraba and your peace flow like an overflowing stream in the valleys of Delta and Bayelsa.

Come and finish your work in our midst, Oh God of compassion, so that truth may reign on the rocks of Abuja and Abeokuta and love may grow on the hills of Enugu and Ibadan. Come and finish your good work in Nigeria that peace may flourish on the divided cities of Kaduna and Jos; that security may prevail on the plains of Zamfara and Katsina, and that peace may abide in the forest regions of Abakaliki and Benin City.

Lord, visit us this year and chase away from our landscape the killer herdsmen, the bloodthirsty fanatics, the senseless bandits and the heartless kidnappers, that have held this land hostage and devoured thousands of its people these last few years. Dislodge the Boko Haram warriors along with their iniquitous sponsors and callous conspirators from their Sambisa Forest and Lake Chad Basin stranglehold; so, your people may once again dwell in peace and worship you in safety and security. Yes, dislodge the demonic terrorists and their mercenary aiders and abetters, from Maiduguri to Yola and Damaturu, and from Chibok to Zambamari and Kankara. Visit us this New Year and neutralise the killer herdsmen, the murderous bandits, and the dreadful kidnappers that have transformed our towns and villages as well as our farm settlements and motorways across the country into theatres of war and valleys of dry bones, from Zamfara to Katsina, and from Benue to Bayelsa.

Dislodge the criminals that have laid siege on this country from our national landscape that our farmers may till the soil and harvest their crops in safety and peace, that our motorists may ply the roads from North to South, and from East to West, without hindrance.

Visit us this year Oh God of Goodness, and lead us from death to life, from falsehood to truth, from fear to trust, from despair to hope, from hate to love, and from war to peace. Breathe your powerful breath, Oh Lord, over the champions of our national destiny, until the lives of the lowly become precious in their eyes, and poverty and destitution are replaced by dignity and prosperity. Pour your oil of anointing on the administrators of the Nigerian commonwealth until the hungry are fed and the thirsty are given a drink, and leadership becomes synonymous with shepherding. Confirm this New Year as the year of your favour, Oh God, that our land may be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the seas.

As you answer my prayer for peace Oh Lord, I pledge (on my own part) to be an instrument of your justice and peace. I know that I cannot change anything in the world until I first experience that change within myself. So, today and every day that I may live, I pledge to say no to hate, ethnic bigotry, greed and avarice. I pledge to say no to covetousness, class prejudice, religious intolerance and violence in all its forms. I pledge to say no to corruption in all its shapes and sizes. Yes, today and every day that I may live, I pledge to say no to all forms of behaviour that abuse, diminish or dehumanise anyone of those created in your image and likeness. And I am committed to giving others the knowledge it takes to do the same.

I shall cry out against the various manifestations of the culture of death in our society, including leadership intransigence, executive impunity, and the wickedness and brutality of law enforcement agents that routinely torture suspects and carry out extra-judicial killings. In the same vein, I shall cry out against jungle justice or the summary execution of mere suspects by an irate mob. I shall cry out against the rising trend by which critics of government policy and perceived political opponents are demonised and vilified by agents of the state and their minions. I shall cry out against executive intransigence and the arrogance of power under which my people are today moaning and weeping. I shall continue to lament the callous application of maximum violence by government forces on innocent and unarmed youths across the country, who were peacefully protesting police brutality and calling for good accountable governance. I shall constantly remind the ruling elite of those words of Proverbs 29:2 that, “when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan!”

I shall cry out against the senseless destruction of precious human lives at the hands of rampaging terrorists, marauding herdsmen and murderous bandits. I shall cry out against the normalisation of the evil of abortion by which the life of the innocent unborn is callously and senselessly terminated. I shall cry out against capital punishment by which an entire society embraces and celebrates vengeance. I shall repeat your injunction in the Decalogue, “thou shall not kill” to the men and women of my generation until my vocal cords collapse. I shall cry out against the terrible evil of rape and other forms of sexual violence in our society. Lord, I pledge not to compromise with violence, whether personal, national or international, for the application of violence in any of its forms always represents the failure of humanity.

Today and every day that I may live, I pledge not to adjust to injustice, for as Eknath Easwaran says, to be ‘well adjusted’ in a bad situation is not at all desirable. I pledge that I shall always be angered by injustice or cruelty, for not to do so is insensitivity, and I am resolved never to be part of what Pope Francis regrettably calls the ‘globalisation of insensitivity’ in the modern society. I pledge not to bear ill-will towards anyone, not to submit to injustice towards anyone, and to conquer falsehood by truth. And I pledge (along with Mahatma Gandhi, Dietrich Bonheoffer, Martin Luther King Jr. and Oscar Romero) that in the process of resisting falsehood and proclaiming the truth, I shall put up with the suffering that is often the inevitable fate of the bearers of truth in an environment of widespread falsehood.

Lord, I want to be afire with love for the bruised poor of our land and to be in solidarity with the abused poor of every land, for as the Cuban writer Jose Marti says, ‘I have no right to weep tears when others are weeping blood.’ I want to be ablaze with enthusiasm for the cause of the oppressed and the down-trodden, the widow and the orphan, the destitute and the handicapped, those detained without trial and those forced into exile. I want to identify passionately with those who are consigned to the margins of society, and those who have lost out in the power equation of a society where the winner takes all. I want to be on the side of all those who constitute the least of Jesus’ brethren, for I recognise that in situations of injustice to be neutral is to be on the side of the oppressor. Yes, Lord, like Martin Luther King Jr. I would like to be known as a drum major. I would like to be known as a drum major for truth, a drum major for justice, a drum major for righteousness, a drum major for human solidarity, a drum major for non-violence, a drum major for peace.

Lord, I would like to be an expert in the art of making peace: pulling down the mountains of selfishness, and filling up the valleys of greed, cutting down the thorn bushes of hostility and raising up the lilies of hospitality, building bridges across the rivers of hate, and bringing together the fragments of disparate humanity. I would like to be an expert in peace-building: stitching torn nerves and mending broken bones, igniting the fire of charity and fanning the flame of humanity. I would like to be an expert in peace-making: rocking the boat that vengeance has set on sail and sending to sea the ship of reconciliation, destroying the myth of power and security, and laying down the foundation for a civilization of love. Ah, Lord, I would like to be an expert in the art of discovering the good and affirming the positive side of every human person, for no one of those created in your image is entirely bad. In this way, I want to place my foot on the surface of the earth and put my seal of peace on the sands of time. I know that my peaceful steps are significant enough to make a difference. If I can take one peaceful step, then I can take two. And with a little more effort I can take a thousand and one peaceful steps. And all these peaceful steps shall be my seal on the sands of time. And thus I shall make a difference.

I make these commitments, Lord, with the awareness that the end of life is not to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. I make these pledges because I recognise with Martin Luther King Jr. that the end of life is to stand up for the truth of God, in season and out of season, welcome or unwelcome, come what may. I make these promises because I know that it is only by giving our lives away that we truly find life, and that the truest act of courage or the strongest act of humanity is to sacrifice oneself for others in a totally non-violent struggle for justice. Lord, I ask that you grant me the special grace you granted Gandhi to match the wicked person’s capacity to inflict suffering with my capacity to endure suffering. This at the end of the day is what it means to be human. Lord, help me to be truly human.

••• Lord, since I desire peace like St. Francis of Assisi, permit me to end my New Year prayer with the prayer of that celebrated Apostle of Peace:
Make me an instrument of your peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow your love;
Where there is injury, your pardon Lord;
And where there is doubt, true faith in you.

Oh Master, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love with all my soul

Make me an instrument of your peace;
Where there is despair, let me give your hope;
Where there is darkness, only light;
And where there is sadness, ever joy.

Oh Master, grant that I may never seek;
So much to be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love with all my soul.

For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
It is in dying (to self) that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

• Rev. Fr. Ehusani is Executive Director, Lux Terra Leadership Foundation