SOLEMNITY OF OUR LADY QUEEN AND PATRONESS OF NIGERIA

Isaiah 11:1-10 

Ephesians 2:13-22 

Matthew 2:13-15.19-23 

Today, the twenty-sixth Sunday of the year (A), we celebrate the solemnity of Our Lady Queen and Patroness of Nigeria. By this celebration we commemorate the consecration of Nigeria to the Blessed Virgin Mary soon after the Independence in 1960. The very first consecration of our country, as some of you may recall, was in 1954 during the International Marian Year. At the heart of the consecration to the Immaculate Heart is the quest for peace which was a feature of the message of Fatima, a hundred years ago.  During his historic visit to Nigeria in 1982, on 14th February 1982, in Kaduna, to be precise, Pope Saint John Paul II led the Church in Nigeria in another consecration to Mary. While leading in the consecration, the Holy Father prayed in part as follows:

O Mother of all individuals and peoples...I desire to consecrate and entrust to you, Mother of the Church, in a special way, the Church in the land of Nigeria.....  

Today we also celebrate the 57th anniversary of our national independence and the Church in Nigeria calls all of us to pray with our Mother Mary and through her for the country.  This year’s celebration of the feast is unique in the sense that it is being celebrated during the Marian Year declared by our
Bishops to mark the Centenary of the Apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima. The Celebration falls also within the 33-days period of preparation for the re-consecration of Nigeria to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

May we all join the Church to entrust our dear country, our families and all our needs and worries to the unfailing care of our mother and queen. We have so much confidence in her power of intercession before the throne of her Son Jesus Christ and of her being a special gift to the Church and our world. Her role in our salvation is not ended, she continues to intercede for us before Jesus Christ the redeemer of the world. That is the reason the Church in Nigeria dedicates our country to her, to intercede for us.

If we are sincere with ourselves, we will agree that the picture created by the Prophet Isaiah in the first reading of today, could be compared to the current scene in our country Nigeria.  The reading is also quite appropriate at this time when the country is marking her 57th Independence Anniversary. The prophet was writing about how injustice has become the order of the day among the chosen People of God. It was also at a time, when the poor in the society were marginalized, corruption was everywhere, and so many abominable things were happening.

It was in the heat of all these anomalies that God’s voice was heard through his prophet Isaiah. That same voice of God is also re-echoing through the word of God, at this time in our country Nigeria where it is no longer news that so many of its citizens are already agitating on their perceived marginalization. It is no longer news that the tension and war cry is on a daily increase in our country. The rate of insecurity in our country, which has cost the lives of so many innocent citizens is no longer news. The questions that keep reoccurring in this state of seeming hopelessness are: When will the prophecy of Isaiah (11: 6-8) about a time of peace when the lion and lamb will live in harmony, and children play with dangerous animals and remain unharmed, be realized? Is there any hope for a relative peace and understanding on earth again, even in our various families and our communities?

Surely peace is possible, and Jesus Christ is the answer. If we can align ourselves to Him as members of His family, we can be sure of better days already prophesied by the Prophet Isaiah. For we are a house built on the foundation of the apostles, and the prophets, of which Jesus is the cornerstone. We must join together with Jesus and become a holy temple (Eph. 2: 20-21), if we must achieve peace. It is only then that the Jews and the Gentles will come to the Father through the Holy Spirit, the Christians and Moslems by extension will also share a bond of love and understanding just as the second reading tells us. And so also other religions, and among different tribes, races, classes, countries and beyond.

We also know that one of the titles of the Blessed Virgin Mary is Queen of Peace and she too can intercede for us. At a marriage ceremony at Cana in Galilee, you remember, she interceded for the couple who were running out of wine. In response, to her intercession, Jesus worked his first miracle by turning water into wine for them (Jn. 2:1-12). We specially call on her today to intercede for our country Nigeria.  Nigeria is running out of wine, Nigeria is running out of peace and unity. So many Nigerians are becoming refugees in their own country, they are becoming slaves in their own land, the roads are becoming so dilapidated, the standard of education is going down, health facilities are not accessible, and our leaders seem to be very comfortable with the situation.

Even if all we are asking for may not happen overnight or as fast as we may want them to, we shall continue to live in hope and confidence in God. The gospel of today leaves us with a model of how the Holy Family survived such hard times in the earthly days of Joseph and Mary. Joseph listened to the voice of the angel that came to him in a dream, by taking refuge in Egypt with his family until the crisis in Judaea was over. We also have to listen to the voice of God in order to know how to cope in our difficult moments. We must remember that God’s ways are not our ways. Sometimes, what we conceive as problems are not meant to destroy us, but to make us stronger and activate God’s plan for us.

What then are we to be doing as good citizens as we wait for God’s intervention in our country and situations?

To me, the Laments for secession in this day and age is  an ill wind that blows no one any good. It cannot be the best thing we can do to correct the problems of our country, problems for which we are all responsible, anyway. It is my belief that Nigerians have interacted and lived together for so long that we are now very dependent on each other, and cannot afford or survive absolute separation. Where do you want me to put my Igbo nephew or my Hausa brother-in-law? Or where do you want me to classify my Igbo cousin and Bini sister-in-law? Can I point a gun at my Ijaw and Urhobo University roommate and shoot him because he is not Yoruba? It is very unfortunate, and has cost us very dearly, that a civil war and consequent reconciliation has done nothing to heal the wounds after so many years. It is my belief that   the oil wealth has greatly contributed to these divisions and disunity. I believe that if Nigeria does not have oil, we will be probably more united than we are today. But then, we have oil, what do we do about it?

Somebody has rightly noted that we, Nigerians spend an entire lifetime fighting one another instead of seeking a common ground to fight the common enemy – mad, greedy, corrupt leaders irrespective of their tribe, religion or region. Just go on Nigerian internet websites and chat forums and one will be shocked at the pure, unedited hatred for each other that are expressed on these sites. Any foreigner that reads them will think that these people are at each other’s throat everyday. Yet, that is not true.

We, you and I have the solutions to our problems. We must demand from our leaders and politicians a shift from the politics of personal enrichment to the politics of service to the people; a shift from the politics of looking for scapegoats to the politics of taking responsibility (including resignation from office when we have failed or are guilty of inappropriate conduct), a shift from the “politics of stomach” to the politics of investing in people (human resources development) and in the future; a shift from the politics of empty promises and deceit to the politics of concrete development; and a shift from the politics of guesswork to the politics of evidence-based planning rooted in scientific research.

Yes, we the followers, must have a change of attitude from the culture of apathy and cynicism to the dynamic culture of active involvement in robust strategies to change things. We must expose corruption and wrongdoing wherever we see them. We must not ourselves contribute to these vices by offering bribes or by making frivolous demands on public officers beyond the legitimate earnings of such public officials. We must contribute to good governance by voting for people on the basis of credibility and performance, not ethnic or regional sentiments. We must develop a culture of vigilance and alertness through setting up organizations, vigilante committees and other people’s organs which will constantly monitor the conduct and performance of people in office. The 2019 election, through our patriotic efforts, must put in place a crop of moral, credible, committed and dynamic leaders.

After we have done these then;

a) We must not relent in prayers for God to give us good leaders and bring peace to our country Nigeria if we must remain as one.

b) We have to begin the change we have always desired from our family and communities.

c) We have to eschew greediness in our relationship with others, and the organizations at our care.

d) Remember to vote the credible people to lead us, and not people who lure our vote with money but do not have our welfare at heart.

e) Always train your children with the fear of God, so that they will grow up to become good citizens and better leaders of tomorrow who will not repeat the mistakes of the past.

As we live in hope that the message of hope from the scriptures will come true in our lives, we pray that through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the patroness of Nigeria,  God will grant a lasting peace to our country (Nigeria). We pray for our country Nigeria today, that as we celebrate the 57th anniversary of our national independence,  peace may be restored to our land. We call on our Lady, queen and patroness of Nigeria to intercede for us to have a change of mentality and the faith to hear the word of God and keep it. May we, as we prepare to re-consecrate Nigeria to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, live credible Christian lives, that will make for peace in our country. 

Our Lady Queen of Nigeria, pray for us. Amen.