DailyTime

Group gives President Buhari two weeks ultimatum to return to the country

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<strong>An advocacy group, Concerned Nigerians, has given Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari a two weeks ultimatum to return to Nigeria and resume his office as the president.</strong></div>
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The group said the president should come back to continue the mandate given to him by Nigerians during the 2015 elections failure of which it would storm the streets of Nigeria on peaceful protest.</div>
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In a statement signed by its convener, Prince Deji Adeyanju and made available to newsmen on Saturday, March 4, the group alleged that although President Buhari handed-over presidential powers to his vice and now Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, he still on two occasions performed two Presidential functions even while abroad on medical vacation, a development the group said constitutes a constitutional dilemma.</div>
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The group however said President Buhari must return to Nigeria since even the circumstances surrounding his actual health status have been kept secret from Nigerians who ought to know the situation concerning their president.</div>
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Read the statement below:</div>
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<i>“Today – March 4th, 2017 marks 45 days of President Muhammadu Buhari’s absence from his office as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and from the country as a whole on a medical vacation in the United Kingdom.”</i></div>
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<i>“During this period, he has not made any public appearances and has only clandestinely “communicated” with very few people. Furthermore, details of President Buhari’s health status have been kept away from the generality of Nigerians while his media team and other members of his cabinet/party make conflicting comments regarding his health.”</i></div>
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<i>“We acknowledge that during this period, President Buhari has satisfied constitutional requirements by transmitting letters to the National Assembly handing power over to his Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, on an acting capacity.”</i></div>
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<i>“However, during this period, President Buhari has created a constitutional dilemma by carrying out official functions. On February 13, 2018 in a capacity as President of Nigeria, he spoke to President Donald Trump of the United States with respect to bilateral relations between the two countries.”</i></div>
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<i>“On Thursday March 2nd, 2017 again in a capacity as President of Nigeria President Buhari spoke to the King of Morocco with respect to bilateral relations between the two countries as well as Morocco’s application to become a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).”</i></div>

Group gives President Buhari two weeks ultimatum to return to the country

An advocacy group, Concerned Nigerians, has given Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari a two weeks ultimatum to return to Nigeria and resum...

09:48

A Pastoral Letter for the Jubilee Year of Mercy

A Pastoral
Letter for
the Jubilee
Year of
Mercy
The Most Reverend Kevin J.
Farrell, Bishop of Dallas

3725 Blackburn Street · Post Office Box 190507 · Dallas,Texas 75219
(214) 379-2873 · Fax (214) 520-3247 · www.cathdal.org
My dear brothers and sisters,
I address you in the spirit of Pope Francis who addressed his recent encyclical letter Laudato Si',
On Care For Our Common Home, “to every person living on this planet,” (n. 3) and his letter
announcing a Jubilee Year for Mercy (Misericordiae Vultus, Bull of Indiction of the
Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, n.23; hereafter MV) “to all who read it.”<br />
<br />
I begin by greeting
all of you who seek, find, worship and serve God in any number of places (including churches,
synagogues, mosques and in everyday life) and seek to be friends with God, with one another
and with all creatures on this good earth. I invite you to consider sharing this letter with anyone
who you think may be struggling with a commitment to organized religion or may want to know
more about this upcoming special year of God’s mercy.
I write to you as we are all still in the afterglow of the historic visit of Pope Francis to these
United States.<br />
<br />
Our Holy Father proved himself to be exactly, a holy father, a wise counselor to
our government officials, a leader among other world leaders and a true pastor to all. He invited
representatives in the corridors of power in Washington, D.C., to evaluate their positions on a
number of issues so that we as a society may “do unto others what you would have them to do
unto you”. In effect, to show mercy as we, in fact, want to be shown mercy.<br />
<br />
He then applied the
Golden Rule to a number of familiar issues, like migration, which remains a very important issue
here in the state of Texas. He added a number of new issues, including care for the
environment. He raised the expectation on other issues like the abolition of the death
penalty. As the bishop of Rome, he spoke twice to the American bishops encouraging them, and
yet also challenging them, in a way that a father needs to do (see, Hebrews 12:7).<br />
<br />
 He invited
people like me as your bishop to stay very close to you and both to encourage and support our
priests to do the same. I say this, fully aware of the very large numbers of people, thank God,
who belong to our parishes, who cooperate in a variety of ministries, who celebrate together the
sacred liturgy and who work together to serve the poor, the homeless and the hungry. As a
pastor, Pope Francis, led us through a series of talks and homilies in Philadelphia about the
reality of family life and the challenges that are real and present in our twenty-first century.
In addition, who of us can ever forget the way he embraced infants brought to him numberless
times during the drives in his Popemobile, and the way he embraced the young girl in a
wheelchair in the center aisle of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We will always remember the moment
when he welcomed a young girl on the street in Washington, D.C., whose hand-written letter
asked that the pope intercede so her migrant parents could enjoy citizenship in “the land of the
free and the home of the brave.”
Throughout his journey to this country the Holy Father showed us by word and deed the human
face of divine mercy; mercy always given to any and all through God the Father, the Son and
the Holy Spirit, “in whom we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28). The cogency of
the pope’s addresses and the keen pastoral insights in his homilies and instructions were always
combined with his inviting and unassuming manner. There was no more poignant example than
when he met the homeless and hungry at St. Patrick’s Church in Washington, D.C. Throughout
his papacy Pope Francis has consistently been a model of integrity: not saying one thing and

3725 Blackburn Street · Post Office Box 190507 · Dallas,Texas 75219
(214) 379-2873 · Fax (214) 520-3247 · www.cathdal.org
doing something different, but consistently saying and doing the same thing (see Matthew
7:21,24-29, MV n. 12). He was and is a Holy Father.
Extending mercy did not begin or end with a papal journey. Extending mercy and personifying
mercy are key characteristics of God himself. God’s all-encompassing mercy started before time
began. In the meantime, Pope Francis has decreed that from December 8, 2015, (Solemnity of
the Immaculate Conception) until November 20, 2016 (Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
King of the Universe) we will celebrate an Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy. He invites us
to live an authentic faith life in the Church when we profess and proclaim mercy and bring
people close to our Savior, the source of mercy for us all (MV n.1).
The purpose of this letter is to invite us to reflect together on what these next months can mean
for us in terms of appreciating how mercy is at the center of God’s relations with us and should
be at the center of our relations with each other and the entire cosmos.
Jesus
With the words “Jesus [is] the face of the Father’s mercy” (MV n. 1), the Holy Father begins his
letter on the Holy Year and asserts that these words could well sum up the Christian
faith. Why? Simply put this phrase means that from all eternity God willed and acted so that we
could live here on earth and return to Him for eternity in perfect harmony with Him, each other
and all creation. The pope reminds us of the biblical story of the sin of Adam and Eve, their
disobedience and banishment from the Garden of Eden (MV n. 3). The result of the action of
our first parents means that each of us is born into the human family bearing the human
condition and estranged from God. But that banishment was to be temporary. The beginning of
true and full reconciliation with God began with the Father sending the Son to restore what was
lost. The disobedience of Adam brought alienation from God. The obedience of Christ, the
Second Adam, began the process of reconciliation and restoration.
As we reflect on our place in the world, in personal and communal terms, we know only too well
that we are imperfect, that relations among nations are imperfect and that we need the kind of
help that only can come from God. God’s help – this help we come to know as God’s mercy –
establishes and confirms the sense of peace in the world.
I begin by using these words of the Holy Father in order to emphasize that “mercy” is less a
concept and more a way of understanding our relationship with God as Father, Son and Holy
Spirit, and especially how we understand who Jesus is. When we remind ourselves that Jesus is
the face of God’s mercy, we can also say that Jesus is the face of God’s justice, of God’s peace,
of God’s reconciliation. In effect what we are talking about in this Holy Year is our relationship
with Christ the Son of God, human and divine and how we in our humanity experience divinity
through, with and in Christ. This is the key that unlocks the true meaning of Christmas. From
the fifth century on, Christians have heard this prayer prayed at Christmas Day Mass:
O God who wonderfully created the dignity of human nature
and still more wonderfully restored it,

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grant, we pray,
that we may share in the divinity of Christ,
who humbled himself to share in our humanity.
(from Pope Leo the Great, Collect, Christmas Day)
It is also worth recalling that Pope Francis is a Jesuit, a member of the Society of
Jesus. Therefore, it is not surprising that he speaks so readily and often about Jesus and our
relatedness to him and to each other. It is important to remember that the word “Jesus” literally
means “the one who saves.” That Pope Francis wants us all to experience the fullness of God
through Jesus is made clear again and again. Jesus is the incarnate face of God. This is the
central theme of Pope Francis’ teachings, prayer and actions. The profound mystery of the
Word made flesh is repeated each time we say the Nicene Creed together at Mass.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
The Holy Father repeatedly refers to the Incarnation – the divine nature of the Son of God
uniting in the human nature of Jesus Christ as a central tenet of our faith. This term is really a
summary of much of Pope Francis’ Jesuit-inspired prayer and spirituality. Such incarnational
spirituality was present at Christmas Mass (Midnight Mass) last year at St. Peter’s Basilica in
Rome, when Pope Francis requested that – Mozart’s Mass in C minor be used as the setting for
the Creed. This is not only one of his favorite music pieces, but, it also places great emphasis on
the phrase et incarnatus est, “was incarnate….” The Holy Father led the congregation to kneel
during this part of the Creed to listen and meditate on the true Christmas mystery.
This favorite phase of Pope Francis, et incarnates est, can be seen as a basis for the profound
assertion to begin this holy year that “Jesus [is] the face of God’s mercy.” (MV n. 1)
Why Catholicism?
This question may sound strange in a letter coming from a Catholic bishop. Recent studies about
faith traditions and religious practice indicate an increasing number of people who judge
themselves as “spiritual, but not religious” and as “believers, but not belongers.” In the most
recent Pew Research Center study, the highest percentage in terms of religious self-identification
are called the “nones,” meaning those who have no (“none”) religious affiliation or
preference. In addition, depending on the survey results you read, it is asserted that for every one
person who comes into the Catholic Church each year (especially at Easter) three or four (or
more) leave. This means that we have to face the possibility of a crisis in Church membership
and not put our heads in the sand.
Put somewhat differently, we need to ask ourselves this: what does being a Catholic mean in a
particular way and what strengths does Catholicism bring to the ecumenical and interreligious
table?

3725 Blackburn Street · Post Office Box 190507 · Dallas,Texas 75219
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Allow me to mention two things. The first concerns our Catholics as being “spiritual and
religious.” The word religion comes from the Latin ligare, meaning “to bind together.” As
Catholics, our system of beliefs and practices binds us together. Catholic religion is a
theological tradition where thinking about the questions of the day and welcoming them is part
and parcel of who we are. This means that we welcome honest debate, based on the bedrock of
the revelation in scripture as well as in the church’s magisterium, teaching and preaching. One of
the characteristic points of Catholicism is that of asking questions in the context of faith and
coming to ever-new insights. In effect, we are “spiritual and religious” because Catholicism is an
inquiring theological religion.
The second point that I mention is that we Catholics are “believers and belongers.” From the
time of Abraham and Sarah in the Book of Genesis through Christ’s shedding his blood for our
salvation, the biblical evidence is that we belong to a covenant religion whose basis is belonging
to each other in a community and believing in and worshipping God together. I emphasize that,
in the same way the celebration of the sacred liturgy is the heart of our communal prayer life in
which the rites and prayers have enormous theological significance and spiritual meaning. As
the pope reminds us, we rely on the mediation of the church community to live our lives of faith
especially when celebrated in the sacraments (MV n. 22). In addition, the ancient adage “what we
pray is what we believe” (lex orandi, lex credendi) means that the more we comprehend and
appreciate the liturgy the more we can experience the infinite depths of the richness and the
wisdom of God. Liturgical prayer is not something we make up. The Church provides it for us.
Our celebration of the liturgy incorporates us as a community again and again into Christ’s
saving mysteries which were instituted “so that sins may be forgiven” (Mt. 26:28, and embedded
in all the Eucharistic prayers at Mass).
In Catholicism, the words of the scriptures, of our theological giants like St. Augustine and St.
Thomas Aquinas, and of our magisterium, matter a great deal. In Catholicism, the words and
rites of the liturgy matter a great deal. Both theology and liturgy reflect our being and becoming
spiritual and religious, believers and belongers.
Forgiveness, Salvation, Redemption.
As Catholics, in our teaching, liturgical tradition and personal prayer we often use the words
“mercy,” “forgiveness,” “salvation” and “redemption” to describe what we ask of God because
of inheriting the “original sin” of Adam and Eve, thus our estrangement from God and our need
for God and union with God. We ask for these things because of the restlessness of the human
heart. As St. Augustine famously prayed “we are made for you, O Lord, and our heats are
restless until they rest in you.”
Theologically, as Catholics, we use the rhetoric of “forgiveness” and “mercy” as a way of
describing who Christ is as the second Adam. At the same time the Holy Father is well aware
(as was St. John Paul II in his encyclical Dives in Misericordia) that in today’s culture many
people judge that they do not need God’s mercy. They live in an “I’m OK, you’re OK, and
that’s OK” culture where any fault is blamed on another, or worse, not ever felt or
acknowledged. In this extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy, Pope Francis invites us to “listen to the

3725 Blackburn Street · Post Office Box 190507 · Dallas,Texas 75219
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Word of God” (MV n. 13) so that we are aware of our need for mercy and confident in God’s
mercy. In the spirit of Pope Francis, I invite us to read and reflect (in the ancient prayer form
known as lectio divina) on Romans 12: 1-21, which for me has always been a useful examination
of conscience leading to a fruitful experience of receiving God’s mercy in the Sacrament of
Penance. It is hard to come away from praying over Romans 12 without acknowledging sin and
imperfection while realizing and experiencing God’s gracious love as expounded throughout the
entire Letter to the Romans. Or as the letter to the Ephesians says, God is “rich in mercy”
(Ephesians 2:4), which are the first words of the encyclical Dives in Misericordia).
Then there is the issue of forgiving others – seventy times seven times (Matthew 18:22) as Pope
Francis reminds us from the verses leading to the parable of the ruthless servant (Matthew 18:23-
35, MV n. 9). As rich in mercy and forgiveness as is the God we believe in, sometimes in our
broken and fragile lives there are times when we ask forgiveness for ourselves but cannot forgive
others. Sometimes these hurts of the human heart are so deep and so painful that we literally
turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to the person(s) who offended us in order to survive. Sometimes
it is hurtful to hear “forgive and forget.” Saying “I can forgive but I can never forget” is really a
defense, or worse self-deception. Sometimes when we have been hurt that deeply and it was not
our fault, which is almost always the case, asking for forgiveness that leads to reconciliation is
the last thing we judge we can possibly do. The all too real issue of abuse is one example of this
kind of violation with long-lasting effects. We find it very hard to want to be reconciled with the
one(s) who committed the hurt. The words of the Lord’s Prayer “forgive us our trespasses as we
forgive those who trespass against us” can sometimes be almost unutterable.
When I speak with people about their inability to forgive, I counsel them that it is very true that
forgiveness does not come easily in life. Real forgiveness requires deep conversion and an everdeepening
surrender to God. I also say that if we do not forgive then we also choose to live in
the past. The pain is as present as the moment it occurred, no matter the passage of time. It is of
great significance that almost all our liturgies contain the communal recitation of the Lord’s
Prayer, “forgive us…as we forgive.” Those words are both consoling and challenging. In the
Church’s wisdom we say this prayer several times a day at sacraments and in other prayers (like
the Rosary). This repetition is intentional because it is hard to truly forgive and that forgiveness
is only possible with divine help and the support of others, especially in the Church. I often
advise people to pause as we begin to say the Lord’s Prayer at Mass and to reflect on these
words: I need the Lord’s help to be able to forgive, and to reach the depth of forgiveness that
enables me to live fully in the present and in joyful hope for the future. It is often said that there
is no such thing as “cheap grace” as grace came because of the sacrifice of Jesus’ life. It is also
true that there is no such thing as “cheap forgiveness.” True forgiveness needs to come from the
heart and soul of our very being.
In addition to the words “mercy” and “forgiveness”, there are two other words we use in
Catholic theology and the sacred liturgy to describe how we understand who Christ is and what
we ask from God. These words are used most frequently during the liturgical seasons of Advent
and Christmas.
The first word is “salvation.” This term is a healing metaphor and indicates that our Savior
comes to heal us from any hurts or things that hinder us from being our best and most authentic

3725 Blackburn Street · Post Office Box 190507 · Dallas,Texas 75219
(214) 379-2873 · Fax (214) 520-3247 · www.cathdal.org
selves. Pope Francis repeatedly says that we are to rely with great confidence on “the medicine
of mercy,” a phrase he quotes from St. John XXIII. In saying this, the Holy Father stands in line
with a very long line of teachers of the Catholic faith who stressed how the sacraments were
medicines to act as antidotes to what causes us spiritual illness.
During Advent we pray that God would send us a Savior, not in the sense that Christ our Savior
is ever absent, but in the sense that we need to open ourselves once again to receive him and his
saving grace. On the feast of Christmas we hear the gospel of Luke announcing, once again,
“Today is born a Savior, Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). The “today” referred to here is from the
Latin term hodie, meaning that what we experience in and through the liturgy happened once in
human history, continues on through all of human history, and is celebrated in a privileged and
unique way in the annual cycle of feasts and seasons. Or as Pope Leo the Great said, "what was
visible in our Savior has passed over into his mysteries” (from the Catechism of the Catholic
Church n. 1115).
The other word is “redemption.” This term is an economic metaphor and indicates that what
Christ did and still does is to “buy back” what was once lost in the Garden of Eden and is lost in
our lives because of behaviors such as, selfishness, squandering the world’s resources, lack of
charity toward others. Join me in recalling with fondness the teaching and example of St. John
Paul II whose first encyclical was Redemptor Hominis, Christ “the redeemer of the human
race.” St. John Paul II wrote repeatedly about how Christ came to redeem and to sanctify us and
admonished us again and again “be not afraid” (Mt. 14:27). What an encouraging
and invitational posture to assume when we consider our lives before God, with each other and
in our “common home” the very earth upon which we dwell (again quoting the title of Pope
Francis’ encyclical on the environment). Liturgical prayer during Advent is filled with
references to asking that our redeemer would come again among us. On the First Sunday of
Advent you will hear the priest recite the Prayer over the offerings:
Accept, we pray, O Lord, these offerings we make,
gathered from among your gifts to us,
and may what you grant to us to celebrate devoutly here below,
gain for us the prize of eternal redemption.
This is a reminder that what we experience here on Earth will come to its fulfillment in heaven.
In the meantime at the Christmas Mass during the Night, the Prayer after the Communion asks:
Grant us, we pray, O Lord our God,
that we, who are gladdened by participation
in the feast of our Redeemer’s Nativity,
may through an honorable way of life become worthy
of union with him.
All of this is summarized in the famous “Jesus Prayer”: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have
mercy on me a sinner.” Here we acclaim the second person of the Trinity. We acclaim him as
“Lord Jesus Christ” because he has ascended to the right hand of the Father and intercedes in
heaven for us, and for all our needs. We plead “have mercy on us” in full confidence that the

3725 Blackburn Street · Post Office Box 190507 · Dallas,Texas 75219
(214) 379-2873 · Fax (214) 520-3247 · www.cathdal.org
way God wants to relate to us is always through superabundant grace to help us overcome the
effects of original sin – in effect our separation from God - and our personal sins.
“God’s Justice is His Mercy” (MV n. 20).
At the start of most sporting events in the U.S. and certainly at the start of sessions of our
legislatures, we recite the Pledge of Allegiance, ending with the words “with liberty and justice
for all.” It is often said that the U.S. is a nation of laws. Our legal system is meant to uphold
“liberty and justice for all,” even though it can be a flawed system and justice may not be served
equally “for all” and misjudgments can be made. In the end, justice is served by courts of law for
which we are grateful and to which we are indebted. Pope Francis asserts: “justice is a
fundamental concept for civil society, which is meant to be governed by the rule of law. Justice
is also understood as that which is rightly due to each individual” (MV n. 20). He says further
that “anyone who makes a mistake must pay the price. However, this is just the beginning of
conversion, not its end, because one begins to feel the tenderness and mercy of God.”
The pope then goes on to discuss the relationship between justice and mercy (MV nn. 20-
21). The Holy Father argues that justice and mercy are not two contradictory realities, but one
single reality which culminates in the fullness of love. Regarding the Old Testament revelation,
he says, “In these passages, justice is understood as the full observance of the Law and the
behavior of every good Israelite in conformity with God’s commandments. Such a vision,
however, has not infrequently led to legalism by distorting the original meaning of justice and
obscuring its profound value. To overcome this legalistic perspective, we need to recall that in
Sacred Scripture, justice is conceived essentially as the faithful abandonment of oneself to God’s
will.” The pope continues, “For his part, Jesus speaks several times of the importance of faith
over and above the observance of the law. It is in this sense that we must understand his words
when, reclining at table with Matthew and other tax collectors and sinners, he says to the
Pharisees raising objections to him, “Go and learn the meaning of ‘I desire mercy not sacrifice’.
I have come not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13).”
For me, one of the most poignant of Jesus’ parables is of the day laborers in the vineyard
(Matthew 20:1-16), all of whom receive the same wage but each of whom came to work at
different times of the day. This seems to go against our usual notion of fairness, not even to say
justice. But the poignancy of the parable is that it is a perfect expression of biblical justice,
always influenced by mercy.
A Merciful Lent
Pope Francis singles out two very important biblical passages about mercy that are key texts
used in the liturgy of Lent this coming year: Isaiah 58: 9b-14 Lenten weekday (222) and Sunday
(73) and also Luke 15: 1-32 (only during Cycle C). I want to invite us all to a Lent filled with
mercy, which is what Lent always celebrates but which will be particularly emphasized in this
Jubilee Year of Mercy. Allow me to offer some thoughts on these and other texts that can be
used this Lent as a kind of lectio divina to help us prepare for this season of mercy and
conversion.

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Ash Wednesday
The first reading from the prophet Joel (2:12-18) reminds us each year that we are entering upon
a season of mercy:
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the Lord, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he,
slow to anger and rich in kindness,
and relenting in punishment. (vs. 13)
This is followed by the Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 51, used regularly during Lent, with the
refrain: “be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.”
The first verse of the Psalm follows:
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion
wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
At the Office of Readings on Ash Wednesday, the church proclaims exactly the same reading the
pope refers to during this Holy Year: verses from Isaiah 58 (1-9a, also 9b-14). Notably this
Isaiah 58 is divided and used as the first reading for the Eucharist on the Friday and Saturday
after Ash Wednesday.
The prophet takes on the kind of fasting that focuses in itself and not focused on what fasting
should lead to. He says:
This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke;
setting free the oppressed,
breaking every yoke;
sharing your bread with the hungry,
sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
clothing the names when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own. (vss. 6-7)
If you remove from your midst oppression,
false accusation and malicious speech;
if you bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;

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the light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday; (vss. 9-10)
As we hear these words again, it is hard not to recall the example which Pope Francis repeatedly
gives us about caring for the poor, the homeless, the hungry, the immigrant, even in the city of
Rome itself. He often reminds us to look into the faces of the poor and to see there the face of
Christ himself. He teaches what Mother Teresa taught her sisters: when you bathe the dying,
you bathe Christ himself. These actions make real the corporal works of mercy, which the pope
summarizes as important actions to engage in and become second nature to us, especially during
this Holy Year (MV n. 15). I think here of the exemplary work done by Catholic Charities and by
the members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, by our permanent deacons and by so very
many parish social justice ministries that make real in our diocese the corporal works of mercy.
Among the spiritual works of mercy which Pope Francis encourages the following that are
particularly poignant and pertinent to the season of Lent: comfort the afflicted, forgive offenses,
bear patiently those who do us ill, and pray for the living and the dead (MV n. 15).
Third, Fourth and Fifth Sundays of Lent
The other biblical passage the Holy Father refers to is the parable of the prodigal son/father,
Luke 15: 11-32. This poignant gospel text is familiar to us all due to its use in penance services
and its recurrence in the Lenten liturgy, specifically the fourth Sunday of Lent in the Cycle “C”
readings. Thus it will be proclaimed this coming Lent, along with two other texts about God’s
mercy on the third and fifth Sundays.
Third Sunday -- Luke 13:1-9
This parable instructs us once again about how God’s ways seem to contradict our customary
ways. In this text, the parable puts aside the typical human way of looking and acting. The man
who owned the garden ordered the vinedresser to cut down a fig tree that had no yield for three
years. This makes perfect sense. Yet, the vinedresser asks that the man allow the tree to stay one
more year and to receive special attention. Again, God’s patient mercy overturns customary
expectations.
Fourth Sunday – Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
This familiar parable is often called “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” because the word
“prodigal” means spending lavishly and extravagantly. Clearly this is what the younger son did
with his share of his father’s inheritance. Yet the word “prodigal” can also be used to refer to the
father, because when the son returns (as we might remark “he came to his senses”), the father
spends lavishly and extravagantly to host a party to welcome him home. One of the most
famous depictions of this parable is Rembrandt’s painting called “The Return of the Prodigal
Son” (variously dated from 1661-69). Art historians and experts have critiqued that, in depicting
the embrace of the son by the father, that the father’s hands are slightly different in shape and
size. The left hand is slightly larger and ruddier than the smaller, softer right hand. Some art
historians argue that the left hand is the “justice” hand and the right hand is the “mercy”

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hand. For our purposes during this holy year, we might think of it as God embracing us with the
principle of justice and the medicine of mercy, always understood together.
In that same painting Rembrandt portrays the elder son on the right as watching the embrace but
who is obviously unmoved, possibly stern. This reflects the poignancy of the biblical text:
toward the end the elder son protests the reconciliation by recounting all that he did while staying
home and working for the father. The father pleads that the elder son “celebrate and rejoice” (vs.
32) because his brother was “dead, and has come back to life” (vs. 32). This is where the gospel
ends. Some have called this the saddest verses in the New Testament. We never know whether
there was reconciliation. Sadly, there is no mention of a festive meal shared among father and
sons.
Once again I quote the Holy Father as he applies the attitude of the father in this parable to the
Sacrament of Penance, especially in his advice to confessors: “…a father who runs out to meet
his son despite the fact that he has squandered away his inheritance. Confessors are called to
embrace the repentant son who comes back home and to express the joy of having him back
again. Let us never tire of also going out to the other son who stands outside, incapable of
rejoicing, in order to explain to him that his judgment is severe and unjust and meaningless in
light of the father’s boundless mercy. May confessors not ask useless questions, but like the
father in the parable, interrupt the speech prepared ahead of time by the prodigal son, so that
confessors will learn to accept the plea for help and mercy pouring from the heart of every
penitent. In short, confessors are called to be a sign of the primacy of mercy always, everywhere,
and in every situation, no matter what.” (MV n. 17)
Fifth Sunday -- John 8:1-ll.
This text is often called “the woman caught in adultery” based on verse 5 referring to the law of
Moses which says “to stone such women.” (John 8:5). In fact, it might well be called “the
woman who is publicly humiliated and takes the blame for herself and the man” because in other
texts both man and woman are to be put to death (Lev. 20:10, Deut. 22:22-24). The strict
interpretation of Mosaic law is that the woman was to be killed. When asked for his verdict,
Jesus simply traces the ground with his finger and ignores the question. Then he says “Let the
man among you who has no sin cast the first stone.” (verse 7). Again he traces his finger on the
ground. When he stood up, the woman said that no one had condemned her, to which Jesus said
“Nor do I condemn you. You may go. From now on, avoid this sin.” (verse 11).
Once again, it is Rembrandt’s painting The Woman Taken in Adultery that offers us keen insight
into this text. The two figures who stand out are Jesus and the woman: Jesus because he is
depicted as being taller in stature than the accusatory crowd, and the woman painted in white
placed against a very dark background. Art historians will say that Jesus’ height was to show his
moral superiority compared with the “scribes and Pharisees” who were the accusers. The fact
that the woman was depicted in white shows that the darkness of the (old) law needs the light of
Christ reflected in all whom, like the woman, receive his light of forgiveness and then radiate
that light.

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It is noteworthy that the “scribes and Pharisees” of this text combine with the “scribes and
Pharisees” as well as the “tax collectors and sinners” from the beginning of the parable of the
prodigal son (Luke 15:1-2). The specially invited guests - tax collectors and sinners - are the
outcasts of society. They who are normally marginal are now center-stage. The “scribes and
Pharisees,” masters of the law, are held out as those most in need of instruction about God’s
justice, which again, as Pope Francis reminds us, is his mercy (MV n. 20).
Do not Judge or Condemn.
As we have come to expect Pope Francis can be very direct in what he says and very pastoral in
what he advises. In the letter announcing the Year of Mercy, he recalls the words of Jesus
“judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not and you will not be condemned” (Luke
6:37). It sounds all so simple. But as we know from experience, sometimes it is not. One of the
seven capital sins, so described from the early church onward, is envy, whose complement is
jealousy. The manifestation of envy and jealousy is gossip. When we gossip, we speak ill of
others and sometimes even undermine their reputation. There is no such thing as “innocent”
gossip. Gossip is lethal. Gossip is the key manifestation of envy and jealousy. Fundamentally,
envy and jealousy mean that we do not accept ourselves as we are with our gifts, talents and
abilities as God has created us. This lack of self-acceptance means that we sin against God
because we deny our very selves, the person who God made in his image and likeness.
Another aspect of voicing judgment or condemnation is that we can never take it back. Once
those words are spoken or written (all too readily available in our internet and “instant
messaging” world) they cannot be taken back. To utter a word of judgment or condemnation is
to enact an injustice and to issue a condemnation. Given the fact that we can never erase emails
entirely (with the right tools someone somewhere can find them) those words never go
away. Among those who practice religion faithfully there can be a tendency to engage in the
worst form of gossip, that is, to judge others’ religious practices. One glaringly public example
of this is gossiping about who should receive Communion at Mass. No one should ever decide
what is another person’s practice. Often we do not know all the facts or the counsel that others
have received from a priest about their state before God, or the way they practice the Catholic
faith.
With tender wisdom the pope counsels that during this Year of Mercy we should rediscover “the
value of silence in order to mediate on the Word that comes to us” (MV n. 13). I would take this
in a parallel direction and invite all to rediscover that silence can be important preventive
medicine lest we gossip, judge or condemn.
I once learned the monastic value of silence from a wise Benedictine novice master. He was
explaining why St. Benedict (as well as other monastic founders) put such a value on silence in
the monastery among the community and with the guests. One reason is to allow the monk to be
open and able to listen to God speaking to him at any time and as a way of praying over the
things they discover in lectio divina. But then he said another reason is charity. Why? Because
in the monastery it is likely that all the monks have to talk about are the other monks. All too
often comments about the other monks are simply gossip.

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A cultivated silence during this Jubilee Year of Mercy might well help us to cultivate selfacceptance
and confidence in the person God created us to be, and wants us to become. The
more we accept God’s love in creating us the less will we need to put others down in gossip,
judgment or condemnation.
An Extraordinary Year.
The fact that Pope Francis has described these next months as “the extraordinary Jubilee of
Mercy” means that this time is not intended to be “business as usual.” It is means to be
extraordinary in a number of ways. The pope illustrates this by speaking of the special
ceremonies in Rome of opening the “Holy Door” in St. Peter’s basilica on December 8th and of
the basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral church of Rome, on the Third Sunday of Advent
(MV 3). The fact that these doors are closed in brick and mortar except for Holy Years means
that when they are open more people can enter the basilica and do there what pilgrims do: pray
together, celebrate sacraments and be still in the presence of the Lord. During this particular
Jubilee Year of Mercy, these doors will be called “Doors of Mercy.”
In the Diocese of Dallas, I have chosen to designate a “Holy Door” a “Door of Mercy” at the
Cathedral Sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Pilgrims who pass through this Door will earn a
Plenary Indulgence upon completing the requirements for this precious gift of the Church. The
Door will be officially designated at the noon Mass on Sunday, December 13, 2015
The pope also speaks of sending out “Missionaries of Mercy” (MV n. 18), who are confessors to
extend God’s mercy through the Sacrament of Penance leading towards reconciliation with God,
each other and all of creation. In the Diocese of Dallas, all priests are Missionaries of Mercy and
I ask all parishes to provide more opportunities for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It is my
hope that every Parish would have extra Penance Services during the year; extra times for
scheduled confessions during the week; organize and promote the program “The Light is on for
you” during Advent and Lent and promote the “Come Home for Christmas” initiative.
Instructions on the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy should be made the subject of
homilies, study groups and the curriculum in parish schools and Religious Education programs.
Liturgy planners should include petitions highlighting the Mercy of God in the prayers of the
faithful.
Pope Francis speaks of the value of pilgrimage to make this Holy Year, a custom derived from
visiting the holy places in, among other places, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Rome. The Diocese of
Dallas will designate special times during the Jubilee Year for parishes in each of our Deaneries
to make a pilgrimage to the Cathedral. Times will be scheduled for parishes to come to the
Cathedral, join with their fellow Catholics for special prayers services including Benediction of
the Blessed Sacrament, Scripture Readings and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
I urge clergy, especially pastors, to arrange time for a parish pilgrimage to the Cathedral: to
experience the Sacrament of Penance, for Solemn Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, and for
litanies, personal prayer, and yes, silence. Parish and individual opportunities abound for the

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Jubilee Year of Mercy. I also encourage all People of God to extend a hand, a compassionate
face, or open arms and hearts of mercy to others by means of the corporal and spiritual works of
mercy. Such works need to be our habit and our renewed, merciful way of living.
With concern for those from other churches and religious traditions, Pope Francis says that…“I
trust that this Jubilee year celebrating the mercy of God will foster an encounter with these
religions and with other noble religious traditions; may it open us to even more fervent dialogue
so that we might know and understand one another better; may it eliminate every form of closedmindedness
and disrespect, and drive out every form of violence and discrimination” (MV
23). This is one of the imperatives from the Second Vatican Council which needs to be
revisited.
Conclusion
I want to encourage you to take this extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy very seriously,
allowing God’s mercy to renew and revitalize your faith and the faith of all people in the Diocese
of Dallas. Each day I am humbled that my name is spoken in the Eucharistic prayer at Mass
along with that of the Holy Father. Allow me to quote the words of the pope when he repeatedly
says “pray for me.” I rely on your prayer for me at each and every Mass, realizing that as my
name is spoken it is really my ministry among you and the whole diocese that is supported by
that prayer. Please know that, during this extraordinary Year of Mercy, I will pause each day as
I pray the Lord’s Prayer at Mass and at the Liturgy of the Hours and any sacrament I celebrate, to
remind myself that the “Our” in the “Our Father” is made concrete and real with you as fellow
pilgrims in the Diocese of Dallas. Especially now, I will hold you in my mind, in prayer, and in
my heart. Thank you for who you are and for all that you do.

A Pastoral Letter for the Jubilee Year of Mercy

A Pastoral Letter for the Jubilee Year of Mercy The Most Reverend Kevin J. Farrell, Bishop of Dallas 3725 Blackburn Street · Post Office Bo...

21:23

FG Sacks All NCAA Directors

<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Federal Government has approved the sack of all the directors in the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) with immediate effect.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">All nine directors were dismissed by the Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">Those affected are: Alhaji Salawu Ozigi (Director of Finance and Accounts), Dr. Joyce Nkemakolam (Director of Aerodrome and Airspace Standards), Barr. Aba Ejembi (Director of Administration) and Mr. Emmanuel Ogunbami (Director of Licensing).</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">The others are: Engr. Benedict Adeyileka (Director of Airworthiness), Mr. Justus Wariya (Director of Air Transport Regulation), Alhaji Adamu Abdullahi (Director of Consumer Protection), Capt. Ayodele Sasegbon (Director of General Aviation) and Mr. Austin-Amadi Ifeanyi (Director of Human Resources).</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">They have been ordered to hand over to the next in command in their various directorates.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">Sam Adurogboye, the General Manager, Public Affairs, NCAA, confirmed the development.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">“It is true that all the directors have been disengaged, but I don’t have details of their disengagement,” he said.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><img src="http://www.premiumgist.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/ncaa1.jpg" /></span>

FG Sacks All NCAA Directors

The Federal Government has approved the sack of all the directors in the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) with immediate effect. A...

21:12

PDP Crisis: Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Under Fire

<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">The leadership crisis tearing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) apart is now being linked to the failure of the party to field a Northerner as its presidential flag bearer in the 2015 elections.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYC), factional leader of the PDP, Senator  Ahmed Makarfi, former national chairman, Dr. Mohammed Haliru and several other party chieftains  believe the story would have been different today for the PDP if it had given its ticket to  a Northerner in that election.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Dr. Goodluck Jonathan from the Southsouth who completed  the  first term of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and went on to win re-election in 2011 was the party’s candidate in 2015 but lost to President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">The party has not known peace since then with Makarfi and former Borno State governor Ali Modu Sheriff locked in a fierce battle for the chairmanship.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Reviewing the situation in an interview yesterday, Makarfi was confident that the party would have won the 2015 presidential election had it fielded a northern candidate.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Makarfi opined that the ‘gang up’ against the PDP in the North would not have arisen if the party had presented a northern candidate.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">He said, the party also became too comfortable that it no longer communicated well with the people to know what they wanted, which he said made it easier for propaganda to be used against it.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">The PDP, he said, “ would have won the 2015 presidential election straight away with a northern candidate.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“The reason is that, it would have been impossible to make an issue out of this North, South thing. We would have broken the North’s gang up, so to say, against the PDP.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“Again, we became too comfortable. A little bit of arrogance sometimes. We were not communicating well with the people. Because we were not communicating well, we failed to get what the people were saying, and of course, that made it easier for propaganda to be used against us. And that propaganda went deep that we couldn’t do anything again.”</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“Yes, we lost the presidential election but that doesn’t diminish us. Every other party still knows that PDP is a leading party,” Jonathan told party leaders who went to present him with the report of the Strategy Review and Inter-Party Affairs Committee of the PDP.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“Losing the presidency is something temporary. We should be able to get that position back as long as we are able to get our acts together. I am happy that you people are working towards that,” he said.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">However, Haliru  told The Nation that the North felt shortchanged in 2015 when the party put Jonathan forward as its candidate for the election.</span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Haliru said that the unfinished first term of the late President Umaru Yar’ Adua was rightly completed by Dr. Jonathan, as specified by the 1999 Constitution, “but since the two terms were meant for the North, the party ought to have fielded a northern candidate to complete the second term (from 2011-2015).”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">He said:”Yar’ Adua was not there to contest for second term, so you cannot say the second term was a Yar’ Adua/Jonathan ticket. It was only the first term that was Yar’Adua/ Jonathan, which the constitution provided for.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“Out of arrogance, the leadership abandoned principles and the people feeling abandoned, reacted the way they reacted. So, I am not surprised. It was the abandonment of the principle of zoning that led the people to abandon the party”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">The ex-party chair, who also served as Defence Minister under Jonathan, admitted that part of the contributing factors to Jonathan’s defeat was nostalgia among majority of Nigerians for what they viewed as the performance of the Buhari military government of 1984.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">His words: “We cannot deny the fact that because President Buhari’s military government of 1984 was interrupted after a short period of 20 months, people were nostalgic that may be if Buahri was allowed to continue, he would have done better.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“But they forgot that the times were not the same. The problems of Nigeria in 1984 have not remained static and the people that Buhari is working with have not remained static.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“For instance, Gen. Tunde Idiagbon is no longer here. He was the backbone of that government and a number of other people that served in that government are either dead or now too old to serve.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“The nostalgia was for that government of 1984 headed by Buhari but also assisted by others, including Gen. Ibrahim Babangida who had clouts then.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“It was a period where the Head of State was the Alpha and Omega. Even if Gen. Idiagbon were to be alive and serving in this government, he may not have the same influence he had back then because the powers of the leader of government under the military were different from the powers enjoyed by a president under an elected government.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“So all these are factors we cannot forget. They felt that if Buhari could come back in 2015, he would correct everything. But the unfortunate thing is that people did not pray aright.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“Instead of praying to God to right the wrongs, they were saying let Buhari come and right the wrongs. If you take the position of God and give it to a person, God will test that person to make sure that nobody is omnipotent but God Himself”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Reminded that he was the one that moved a motion at the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting shortly before the election,that paved the way for Jonathan to contest the 2015 presidential election, Dr. Haliru clarified his position.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">According to him, the motion he moved was to allow Jonathan contest the election, but not to make him the sole candidate for the election, as decided by the party leadership at the time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“That motion was not my motion. I saw the motion on the floor of the house. What people were saying was that Jonathan could not contest. It was not a convention.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“It was a NEC meeting and we realized that if you rule out a sitting president, it could damage the party. But if you allow him to contest, you could defeat him at the convention.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“So I moved the motion that he should be allowed to contest, but not as sole candidate. Sule Lamido (immediate past Jigawa State Governor) seconded the motion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“If you see the content of that motion, you won’t see anything like sole candidate there. Even though I saw the motion on the floor and I was asked to move it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“If I had seen sole candidate in it, I would not move the motion. Jonathan was allowed to contest as an aspirant. The people did not deny anyone of the right to contest.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“There were other people that wanted to contest but the then National Working Committee of the party restricted sale of forms to other aspirants.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“I was not one of the people who felt that Jonathan should not contest. I did not move the motion for a sole candidate because there is no provision for sole candidate in the PDP constitution.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“Even when it is zoned to the south, northerners are allowed to contest. Even when zoned to the north, southerners are allowed to contest.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“Remember our first convention when the presidential ticket was zoned to the south in which Chief Olusegun Obasanjo emerged, the late Abubakar Rimi also contested and he was allowed. The following one, which was also zoned to the south for Obasanjo’s second term, Rimi and some other people still contested. So PDP has no provision for sole candidate”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Dr. Haliru however, restated Jonathan’s position that the PDP could win the 2019 presidential election if the party could put its acts together.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">He said that many PDP members that defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) shortly before the 2015 election are now disappointed by the poor performance of the ruling party in government.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">The Kebbi State born party chief hinted that majority of the high profile defectors have already been discussing with the PDP, seeking to return to the PDP.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">He continued: “The same people that defected from the PDP and voted for the APC in 2015 to make them win, are now thoroughly disappointed. They have been coming to us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“They are not likely to vote for the APC ticket again. And then if you look at the election figures, if you remove the five PDP states where their governors defected to the APC, you find that the APC would not have been anywhere near winning the election.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“If you remove the two million votes that Buhari got from Kano. He only defeated Jonathan with about two million votes. So remove votes from Kano, Sokoto, Kwara and Adamawa which used to be PDP states from the votes given to Buhari.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“But now they are all disappointed by the APC. So you can say that it’s PDP that made Buhari win in 2015 because we alienated our people. Now we are reorganising and we are inviting our people back.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“Even the claim that APC won because of merger is not true. If you look at the Southwest, it was 50/50 for the PDP and the APC. Jonathan was almost 50/50 with Buhari in the Southwest.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“And PDP owns the Southsouth and the Southeast. So looking at these figures, one can predict that we will come back to power in 2019.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“The only thing is that if a third party merges, as some people are talking about a mega party. But we will do our best to ensure that PDP is repositioned to offer credible alternative, rather than forcing people to go for a third party.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">In a separate interview, Senator Grace Bent, who represented Adamawa South in the Sixth Senate, said: “In all fairness, Jonathan should not have had the ticket, especially when you see the need to go by our zoning policy,” she said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“With adherence to our zoning formula, we would have been able to look around for a credible candidate from the northern part of the county, to contest for that office.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Bent said: “With the way things are going in the party now, I am afraid that the issue of zoning is going to be rubbished. Everybody now wants to give it a shot; Igbos are beginning to agitate for it, the North is insisting that they must do their own second term and there is so much agitation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“For executive office, believe me, I am completely for zoning; it is a must that zoning or rotation must be practiced for executive office.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“For executive office, it is compulsory that we must maintain zoning policy and adhere strictly to it, especially when we consider the complexity of our mosaic nature – our multi-ethnic, multi-religious setting. With such, we do not have a choice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“That was one of the reasons why president Obasanjo insisted that a South-South person should have a shot at the presidency and that is why he and other party people supported Goodluck Jonathan so that the Ijaws could feel a sense of belonging.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“The country belongs to all of us and no  particular group  can  claim  its  leadership  as  an  exclusive  right.   No!   We   must   stand   by zoning policy always, otherwise, we are going to create unnecessary chaos in the country”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">The national leader of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYC) Comrade Shetima Yerima, also  blamed ex-President Jonathan for the present crisis rocking PDP.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Speaking by phone Shetima said:  “The party wouldn’t have been in the crisis it is currently enmeshed in if Jonathan had allowed a northerner to run in 2015.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“On moral ground, Jonathan should have stepped down and allowed a northern to run based on agreement within the party and other stakeholders. He should have allowed a northerner to contest to respect the agreement. But on constitutional ground that supersedes every other interest, he had the right to contest.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“What is happening in the party shows that they don’t have the love of the people and the country at heart. They are only trying to satisfy some interests in the party. This is what brought us to the state we are today.  For me, it is destined that Buhari must be the president of Nigeria. it was destined that Jonathan must disappoint people and go ahead to contest, it was destined that the PDP must make that blunder for Buhari to come in.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Mr. Austine Medaiyedu, Special adviser to former Governor Idris Wada of Kogi state said :”The truth of the matter is that GEJ was no longer sellable for the Presidential election in 2015.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“He surrounded himself with sycophants who could not tell him the truth. Don’t forget also the accusations of the purported single term  agreement he signed and vowed not to run again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“More importantly, the parallel campaign organisation floated by his wife was one of his undoings. The climax of his failure was the unresolved internal crisis in PDP. Five sitting governors defected to APC and we went into the election without considering the implications. Zoning was another factor for his failure. The PDP refused to zone presidency to the North as widely requested for.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">A chieftain of the party in Ondo State and former media aide to Governor Olusegun Mimiko,Mr Sunday Menukuro maintained that former President Goodluck Jonathan committed a blunder by contesting the 2015 presidential election.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">He noted that the people had been fed up with his administration and should have allowed a Northerner to run for the office.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“He  should have allowed natural justice to take place by not re-contesting the election. It was out of picking the better devil out of two that the eminent academic, Prof Wole Soyinka supported the incumbent President,Muhammadu Buhari because the people had no choice,” Menukuro said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Menukuro however expressed optimism that the PDP crisis would soon be over and would get back to power in 2019.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Factional chairman of the party in Kwara state Prince Sunday Fagbemi said the Jonathan candidacy in the 2015 election was responsible for the defeat of the party.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Prince Fagbemi who is loyal to Ahmed Makarfi PDP said: “Candidly speaking the fortune of PDP would have been enhanced if Dr Goodluck Jonathan had not contested the last presidential elections.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“If PDP had fielded a northern candidate all retired military officers would have voted against Buhari because many of them know his background.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“The outcome of the elections showed that many northern PDP members, even in states that we had super ministers mobilised for APC or were unconcerned.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">A former youth leader and state chairmanship aspirant of the PDP in Enugu State, Sir Tony Nwachukwu said the failure of PDP in the 2015 presidential election was caused by making Jonathan the flagbearer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">His words: “ýFormer President Goodluck Jonathan should not have featured as PDP Presidential Candidate in 2015.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;"> “His resolve to contest destabilized PDP and the divide sustains to date. It is unfortunate and regrettable.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;"> Ntufam John Okon, immediate past chairman, PDP, Cross River State, said: “Those things are past issues, but we felt that we should give him (Jonathan) an opportunity to run, but like you noticed he was not acceptable to  the nation and that is why he lost the election.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“So it is already a gone matter. I was part of his delegates, to give him opportunity to rule. I believe we would have done better if Jonathan had nominated somebody from the north.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“But then, what if a candidate came from the North and Jonathan did not support him? It wouldn’t have been better too because he was the sitting president. And normally in our experience you give the president a second term to be able to do it. Just like I said, he was not well received by the nation and that is why we lost the election. So we have learnt.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">However, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost the 2015 Presidential election because the party’s decisions at the state levels were unpopular and selfish.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">The foremost Ijaw group said the party breached the principles of internal democracy during their various primaries in states.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">The President of IYC, Mr. Udengs Eradiri, said the party imposed candidates at various electoral positions in the state including the governorship level compelling its members to vote against the party at the general elections.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">He insisted that former President Goodluck Jonathan despite his popularity was a victim of protest votes caused by the greed and insensitivity of PDP cabals.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">He said: “The PDP was busy imposing candidates while the opposition, the All Progressives Congress (APC) was getting stronger. When you see that the opposition was getting stronger as a party you should have come up with a strategy of making sure that the will of the people in your primaries prevailed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“But almost all their primaries had issues and APC was clever to wait for them. Anywhere the PDP failed, the APC took advantage and that was what happened.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“If Jonathan breached the party’s zoning principle, how come he got over 12 million votes? Jonathan lost narrowly because the party failed to allow internal democracy prevailed when they were carrying out primaries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“They were imposing unpopular candidates. In a lot of places the APC won, the candidates didn’t even spend money. They benefitted from protest votes”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">The party’s publicity secretary in Bayelsa State,Jonathan’s home state, Mr. Osom Macbere,is also of the view that the PDP  lost the election because its members especially from the North betrayed Jonathan.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Macbere, a lawyer, insisted that it would be foolhardy to blame Jonathan for PDP’s misfortunes, when it was an open secret that almost all the structures of the party in the north supported President Muhammadu Buhari because of their tribal loyalty.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">He described the current crisis rocking the party as the Karma resulting from the betrayal against Jonathan and advised the party to deal with its self-inflicted injuries instead trading blames.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">He said: “Overtime, the people of the north have been known to be lacking in real party loyalty. They are only loyal to their tribe and during that period, their loyalty swayed from Jonathan to Buhari because they wanted to support their kith and kin.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“Their actions were guided by ethnicity and tribalism because Jonathan was not their own. How would they have though that any President would not have to run in an election where he was the first candidate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“The man was a sitting President and wouldn’t it have been abnormality for a sitting President to have chickened out running to protect his office simply because of any consideration other than his qualification?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“So, they were just being ethnic, parochial and tribalistic in their thinking that he ought not to have run. If Jonathan were a northerner, that line of reasoning wouldn’t have been pertinent.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“Jonathan was not a northerner of their own extraction that was why they betrayed him. They wanted him to concede his right to run to one of their own and because he didn’t do that he was betrayed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“So, Jonathan didn’t lose because Jonathan was not a popular candidate. He lost by dint of high level betrayal from his own party men and women from the north.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“The crisis is PDP is still the crisis of the betrayal that they had done to Jonathan and the karma that follows every situation where propriety is never the order of the day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“Had they not betrayed Jonathan, all that we are enmeshed in now wouldn’t have been there. So, the betrayal, the treachery and the tribalistic and ethnic thinking of the northern cabal was the reason Jonathan failed and remains the reason the party has been in crisis up till now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">“Their primordial thinking that everything that has to do with political power is the exclusive reserve of the north has not been helping matters in our polity.”</span></div>
</span></span>

PDP Crisis: Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Under Fire

The leadership crisis tearing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) apart is now being linked to the failure of the party to field a Northern...

21:06

Osinbajo Faces Tough Times In Aso Rock..

<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">Indications have emerged that Acting President Yemi Osinbajo is facing pressure with loaded activities resulting from the continued absence of President Muhammadu Buhari. President Buhari left Nigeria over a month ago for the United Kingdom (UK) where he is currently receiving medical attention.</span><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">Buhari had in separate letters to the leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives, transmitted power to Osinbajo to perform the duties of the President in acting capacity until he returns.</span><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">The President on February 6, dispatched another letter expressing his desire to extend the vacation in order to undergo a series of medical tests as recommended by London doctors.</span><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">Saturday Telegraph gathered that since President Buhari’s departure, the traffic of activities in Aso Rock has shifted to the Vice- President’s office wing with a series of events and meetings engaging the acting President attention.</span><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">Osinbajo, who heads the President’s Economic Management Team (EMT), also presides over the National Economic Council (NEC).</span><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">This comprises the governors of the 36 states of the federation, governor of the Central Bank if Nigeria (CBN) and other top government officials. With the absence of President Buhari, the acting President has also been presiding over the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC).</span><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">Investigations of his weekly schedule show that the Acting President holds about 15 meetings ranging from security, economic to political issues.</span><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">A senior aide to the Acting President, who spoke to our correspondent yesterday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to do so, confirmed that the absence of President Buhari was telling on Osinbajo. “It’s really tough for the acting President.</span><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">Everyone with a problem, from the ministers, the state governors, the leadership of the National Assembly, the diplomatic community, security agencies and many others, want his attention.</span><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">“He has to attend to these officials and other consultations from the private sector as well as other organised sectors. You can understand the pressure this is exerting on the acting President unlike when both leaders were around,” the source noted.</span><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">Our correspondent also gathered that following the official transfer of power to the Vice President, the atmosphere in Aso Rock is not tense as compared to the crisis created during the days of late President Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan.</span><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">“Every government official including the President’s men are loyal to the Acting President who is performing all functions of the President.</span><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">“You can see that both the Chief of Staff to the President Abba Kyari, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu who are the three closest aides to Buhari here have been coming to work. It’s one presidency,” another aide to the Acting President noted yesterday.</span><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">This week, Osinbajo met with the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), the Presidential Task Force on Wheat and Rice Production and the management of South African Telecommunication firm, MTN. Osinbajo was also in Lagos on Thursday where he flagged off the GreenBond as well as inspect facilities at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport. He also visited The Gambia.</span><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Acting President, Mr. Laolu Akande, who confirmed that work load for his principal had increased, however, said he was equal to the task. Akande in an interview with our correspondent said “The Acting President is doing very well.</span><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">Even before the transmission of power to him through the letter to the National Assembly, he had been hardworking.</span><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">“Let me tell you that the acting President became a law teacher at 23, a Professor at 33. Not many people become professors so quick, that’s a sign of hard work.</span><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">“He coordinated a lot of work as Commissioner of Justice in Lagos State and did that job with all seriousness and a great sense of commitment.</span><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><br style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;" /><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;">“He has always been hardworking. Hard work for him is an important value and that is why he works round the clock. In fact, the Acting President has told me that Mr. President inspires him a great deal,” Akande noted</span></span>

Osinbajo Faces Tough Times In Aso Rock..

Indications have emerged that Acting President Yemi Osinbajo is facing pressure with loaded activities resulting from the continued absence ...

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Osinbajo Faces Tough Times In Aso Rock..

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