On Good Friday, Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. His was the public execution of an innocent man. But this event, which occurred more than 2000 years ago, is being reenacted today in the events we experience in our land and in our world.

The narrative of Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross, having been rejected by leaders of his own nation and handed over to the leader of an occupying army, is today a replay of and a commentary on what is happening in our land and in our world. Today, the innocent is a victim in the hands of the guilty, the righteous are in the hands of criminals, and the powerless still suffer and die as victims of the ambiguity of power.

Today, victims suffer and die under the watch of leaders who ought to protect them but look away, washing their hands in a gesture of pretentious neutrality and presumed helplessness, just as Pilate, the powerful Roman Governor, did when he condemned Jesus to death and handed him over to be crucified. Today, the innocent falls victim under the watch of leaders with transactional, shifting commitments.
Campaigning on a party’s platform, Nigerians vote for candidates for public office, believing they will truly represent the values espoused on their campaign trail. Upon assuming office, they swear an oath to protect the powerless. But their fidelity to justice is, like Pilate’s, in the breach.

Jesus, whose crucifixion is commemorated by Christians on Good Friday, taught by word and example, indeed by his example of fidelity to the point of being put to death on a cross, that to be a true leader is to stand for something. A true leader must hold noble convictions and be constant in holding them.

One is not certain that such could be said of political actors in our world today.  In Nigeria, it cannot be said of political actors of shifting political affiliations. Here, a political party is just a vehicle for conveying politicians to public office in their lust for power and the trappings of office. That is why, as every campaign season approaches in Nigeria, party affiliation shifts faster than the clock. That is why none of the political parties in Nigeria can be described as having manifestos that articulate steps and milestones to creating a Nigeria where every citizen has the opportunity to flourish. That is why political parties, especially in Nigeria, cannot be said to stand for the people. They exist to put politicians in office.

On the international scene, the world is held captive by the unwise belligerence of a few leaders whose rhetoric and conduct bear consequences that affect the lives of victims in the remotest corners of the world. Insatiable appetite for precious commodities leads to wars waged by politicians of hegemonic temperament and intent, in an egotistical, arrogant display of the despicable philosophy of might is right.

Our world is in the hands of political leaders who violate fundamental human rights within their own countries and treat international law with disdain in the comity of nations. Humanity is crucified again with numerous victims. And the victims are patients in hospitals hit by bombs, schoolchildren who are abducted by terrorists or hit by bombs and missiles while they are in school, and farmers who find out it is not safe to go to the farm because of herders. The victims are civilians traumatised, maimed or killed because the powerful display an abject lack of sagacity in matters that affect their countries and the whole world.

It could be said that fidelity is not lacking in our country and in our world. Persons are, after all, faithful to the pursuit of their selfish interests. But such fidelity to selfishness is what Jesus counteracted on the cross. Jesus, by his fidelity to his mission of love unto death, has lessons to teach our world. The lesson is fidelity to a noble mission rooted in noble convictions. It is about constancy in thinking right and acting right. This challenges contemporary culture with its religion of self-deification and self-adoration. It is a religion that teaches that power, profit and pleasure must be attained by subjecting every other person to my dominion.

The lesson of Good Friday, the lesson Jesus taught by his life and by his death on the cross, is that the cult of self-worship destroys our world while the practice of true love, the practice of habitually willing goodness to others, is what liberates the world. The cult of self-love to the point of treating persons, communities and nations with contempt is one in which innocent victims are sacrificed on the altar of egotistic power addiction. But our land and our world can be healed and liberated where and when the lesson of Good Friday is put into practice.