so much has been said on this forum about nigeria and nigerians. so much complaints, poverty, tribalism/racism, insecurity, patriotism, poor healthcare, poor infrastructure, corruption, democracy education etc but no matter how much we may say on this forum it will not change anything. if we like we can quarrel from morning to night. we cant change the situation back home.

last weekend there was an event in cardiff to celebrate nigeria's independence. a ghanaian woman who invited me asked me why i did not come and i told her that there is nothing about nigeria to celebrate and she told me something that touched me. . . .that no matter how frustrated i may be, the problems in nigeria were there b4 i was born and will be there (perhaps even new problems) after i'm gone and no amount of annoyance will change them but that i have a limited time on earth and should maximise that time.

so i asked myself, what can i do? i cant change the problems, but i can do something. where do i start, what are my resources? nothing. just a foreign student in the UK. But i remembered, i'm a christain, i can pray. i should start with that until i'm able to do more than that. since i'm on nairaland i can start a public prayer session. now no matter who tries to discourage this, i would not give in as far as i'm alive and have assess to internet( and nairaland) i could create a thread in which i can come every week to pray for my country. this i would do until God gives me greater power to do more than just praying

i also encourage other christains to join me in this prayer and possibly God can turn things around when least expected. remember some recent history____ abacha was eliminated from nigeria not by NADECO or western press or demonstrations in the street but. . . . . . . . . .we just woke up one morning to hear he is no more and then a new head of state then elections all in quick succession. this prayer thread begins today. feel free to join the prayers.
peace
God bless

WEEK 1: INTRO
our father who art in heaven, we thank thee for your mercies and we appreciate your Glory and majesty. we ask that you bless our country Nigeria and bless our government. grant our president the conscience to use and make his decisions. bring integrity to the national assembly and guide them into making Godly, people oriented laws. bless the judiciary and direct them to be Godly in judgement. reduce the level of corruption and laxity in our national psyche. bring peace and security to the niger-delta and the rest of the country.

we pray for the establishment of our democratic institutions. restore dignity to our educational systems and bless our educational institutions with a sense of service. restore the health service to the service of humanity and let our health workers be more sensitive to the plight of the ill.

we also pray for the children in our country. may they never grow to accept the social ills in our society today as a normal way of life

all these and more we pray for. .  through the name of Jesus Christ our lord________AMEN

@ toshmann:

This is a wonderful thraed and I just thot to drop a word of encouragement. I hope other Nairalanders plug in to this very soon:

"Father we thank You for our great nation, Nigeria. The government of Nigeria is upon Your shoulders. We thank you for where You have brought us us from and where you are taking us. We know that Your thoughts towards us are of good and not of evil. We pray that You give wisdom to our leaders to establish Your will in the land. Thank You for the good changes we have seen so far and many more to come---- in Jesus' name!!! AMEN!! "

@lady Ti
thank you for those words of encouragement. may God bless you.

WEEK 2: PEACE

Our father, who art in heaven, we seek peace in Nigeria today, as we know fully well that there can be no progress without peace. We are also aware that there can be no peace without justice. Also we recognise the fact that Justice is incomplete without fairness. However we do know that we have a God who is not unaware of all these issues and its complexities. we present before you the need for peace in Nigeria. From the north to the south, down to the east and the west, we ask for peace from the Prince Of Peace. we come against all forms of violence, be it religious violence especially in the north, political violence, violence on our campuses, violence in our homes (including domestic violence), violence in our working places, violence in every aspect of our private and national lives. in its place we pray for absolute peace and understanding. making the way for love unity and eventually progress. this we ask through the name of Jesus Christ our Lord__________AMEN

WEEK 3: UNITY

a kingdom divided against itself shall not stand. father we pray for the unity of the Nigerian nation. we as a people can only move forward if we move together and help out one another. we pray against all seeds of discord planted in our midst. all barriers to unity are hereby brought down, tribalism, ethnicity, rich vs poor, north vs south, xtain vs muslim, male vs female, etc we pray that such divisiveness never manifests in our national life. we pray for the unity that inspires patriotism and national pride in Jesus name we pray ------------AMEN

WEEK 4: HOPE

Lord we pray today because we have a great hope of tommorow, that hope that is Jesus Christ. We restore in his name the hope for a better nigeria. that Hope against Hope that paul wrote about. despite what we see in our country today, despite what we hear about our country today, we have a hope that the nation will rise. no matter how frail that hope may be, we trust you Lord, to keep that Hope alive, so we may use it to keep up the fight and belief for progress in our nation.

this we ask in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord_____________AMEN