He reminds Nigerians of their suffering resulting from bad leadership and urges them to seize the opportunity and change the situation for the better.
Bishop Okoye warns Nigerians about wrong choices based on coercion and bribery, saying, “Do not mortgage your children’s destiny for a piece of the coin and few cups of rice and all.”
The 60-year-old Bishop who has been at the helm of the Nnewi Diocese since February 2022 tells his compatriots to pray for the nation and the electorate to “exercise your franchise for the good of our dear country Nigeria and for posterity.”
If Nigerians make poor choices in the elections, Bishop Okoye says, “The future of our children will pass judgment on all of us if we fail to get it right this time.”
“It is critical. The power for the needed change is in your hands. Choose wisely and vote reasonably. It is a moral obligation for all Christians to cooperate in the renewal of this part of the temporal order called Nigeria,” he says.
In his Lenten Message February 22, the Nigerian Catholic Bishop also cautions politicians against violence and falsehood throughout the electioneering period.
He says that during the 40-day period of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, Catholics in the Nigerian Catholic Diocese will be guided by the theme, “Suffering in Communion with the Lord”.
In his Lenten Pastoral Message, Bishop Okoye says heightened insecurity, the fake resurgence of traditional religion, new Naira notes, fuel scarcity, and epidemics are some of the factors that contributed to the choice of the theme.
“The choice of this current theme of my 2023 Pastoral Letter was informed by the marauding so-called unknown Gunmen who have caused unimaginable suffering for the people,” the Catholic Church leader who started his Episcopal Ministry in August 2014 as Auxiliary Bishop of Nigeria’s Awka Diocese says.
He explains that there is a need for communion with the Lord in suffering as “lives are being lost and the property being destroyed daily; liberty of free men taken over by kidnappers, and freedom of movement and right to commercial engagements violated with reckless abandon.”
