Martins, in his New Year message, admonished Nigerians not to sit on the fence but be active players in order to make meaningful input in determining their destinies and those of their children.
“In the coming year, our message to Nigerians is that of hope for a better country.
“But this can only be achievable if every eligible voter utilises their PVC’s rightly to elect only God fearing and credible leaders who will serve the interests of Nigerians and not their own primordial interests.
“We are appealing to Nigerians to see the forthcoming elections as a wake-up call to do the needful by making their votes count, by so doing we can collectively work towards entrenching good governance and better quality of lives for all Nigerians,” he said.
Martins urged Nigerians to guide their PVCs jealously and with due diligence; not allowing their conscience to be bought over by desperate politicians who are desirous only of perpetrating their selfish interests and those of their families and cronies.
The Archbishop said that 2018 has been characterised majorly by insecurity and lacklustre performance of economic indicators, culminating in reduced quality of living by majority of Nigerians.
“The year 2018 has truly not lived up to expectation for majority of Nigerians owing to gross insecurity across the country and less-than-average performance of the economy.
“The results of these have been increased insecurity, unnecessarily killings, unemployment, incessant strike actions and lower quality of lives for the masses.
“We believe most of these are caused by human negligence without the enforcement of appropriate penalties by the law enforcement agencies against those found wanting.
“We believe all these can better be addressed if the law enforcers can work more dispassionately; those saddled with the task of governance are more alive to their responsibilities and for Nigerians to hold their leaders accountable for their lapses,” he said.
The prelate urged Nigerians not to allow the challenges they experienced in 2018 to weigh them down, but to put their trust in the Almighty God who alone has the answers to problems plaguing the country.
