GENUINE PEACE SPRINGS FROM LOVE WITHOUT BARRIERS OR CONDITIONS
It was a very great pleasure and honour to be invited by a Tiv couple, Mr. Joseph Bem Targema and Bridget, on Sunday the 3rd of November, to officiate at the solemnization of their marriage in the Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist, Tyozua, Makurdi.
Very edifying also was the kind invitation by the Bishop of Makurdi, Most Rev. Dr. Wilfred Anagbe to the Jukun Chiefs of Abinsi, Fiidi and Gbajimba in Benue State together with their colleagues, some Tiv Chiefs, to join in the Eucharistic celebration in a Church that is almost 100% Tiv-speaking.
These are the little gestures that can help in healing wounds and by God’s grace, ending the seemingly endless hostility between the Jukun and the Tiv. Where there is a will, there is a way.
We must never give up on doing good for one another. We must seek to overcome evil with good especially when we inflict pain and injury and even death on one another. Let our common humanity and our faith in God be the reason for being kind, gentle and a pillar of support to one another.
Nigerians must see and treat fellow Nigerians with respect and dignity and not as enemies to be destroyed. The frenzy of religious worship in the country must be translated into concrete love of fellow citizens irrespective of ethnic and religious differences or social status.
