Festive greetings to fellow citizens and non-citizens alike, as we celebrate the Mass of Jesus Christ as fondly called Christmas, I felicitates with the nation on this joyous celebration of the birthday of Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world.
Every year Gambians join the rest of the world to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and this year my Christmas message to the nation is Love your Neighbour, and love your Nation.
I have four detailed things to you which may benefit the nation and they are: Love, Neighbour, Leaders, Nation.
Love: The real definition of love and what love is
Love is a strong liking or affection for someone or something, and love is a passionate and adoring regard or respect for another or individuals; the form of such affection must be human being.
Who is loved? The word of God carefully and openly without fear, favor or controversy says that
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life”, John 3:16
To Love your neighbors is to show your adoration, respect, and admiration to them which is beyond words, measure, and boundless. Love is infinite; it is immeasurable, inestimable, unlimited, countless and endless.
How do you love your neighbors when you don’t care for the people? If truly you love God as you may proclaim, then prove it to your neighbors which means you cannot love God and hate your neighbors.
1. Neighbour:- Love your neighbour: A lawyer asked Jesus, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said to him, what is written in the law, what is your reading of it? The lawyer answered this way, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind and you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. And Jesus said to him, “You have answered rightly, do this and you will live” The lawyer wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus gave the lawyer an illustration, certain man was travelling and on his way to Banjul to Soma or Basse and fell among thieves who beat him and took his money and his clothing and left him half dead.
A priest saw the wounded man and went his way, a politician also saw the half dead man, looked at him and said, he is not my party member, he did not vote for me during last election, he went his way, but a certain man who was passing, saw the half dead man, and had compassion on him, went to him and bandaged his wounds, took him to nearby clinic, paid all charges and went his way.
Jesus asked the lawyer, which of the three men was neighbor to him who was beaten by thieves? The lawyer said the man who showed him mercy, then Jesus said to the lawyer, Go and do likewise, Luke 10:25-37.
The Lord God Almighty is asking all citizens of The Gambia, who is your neighbor? The correct answer is both citizens and none citizens living in the Gambia who cares for their neighbors.
The Gambia
If you truly love The Gambia, you must be patriotic, and loyal. You must be devoted to your nation’s interest, because there is no room for chauvinistic, homophobic, and no room for prejudice, intolerant and fanatical, partiality or narrow-minded, you should not be partisan and one-sided biased citizen.
We must truly dedicate and committed to the interest of The Gambia, We as citizens should not allow politics of personal interest to divide us. Tribal sentiments must be behind every citizen because God Almighty knows why he made us speak different languages and have different cultures but one Gambia.
Our love for our nation must be on top of our agenda and should overtake all our interest. We have a duty to work hard and strive at all cost to improve, and recognise the shortcomings of our nation and join hands and create a community where everyone has what they need.
Patriotic citizens are citizens who truly devoted to seeing our Gambia’s success. Patriotism and loyalty which is love for our nation of which every citizen should show real commitment at all cost to cultivate deeply. Our nation first before any nation be it the most powerful nation or the richest nation in the world.
Our Gambia, our home must be first before our personal importance, position and status no matter who you are or your position. Remember, as citizens, if there was no Gambia, then there is no you, you won’t exist.
We must prove our patriotism and loyalty to our homeland first. We must cultivate the love of law and our constitution and our common liberty, and as citizens we must show modesty to our nation. We must work for the common good of our nation and we have duty to work justly toward our nation.
Why is it too hard for you to love one another, simple question is WHY? Why do you want to hurt people, why can’t you be nice to your neighbors, friends, family and your community and your nation, big question is WHY? Why do you destroy people, sometimes you meet some people today and next some of them gone, so why, why do you hate people and the world is enough to each one of us.
As citizens, we must nurture the love of common liberty which enables us to our private and particular interests as part of the common good and help to resist tribalism, nepotism, corruption or dishonesty. To love the Gambia is to be willing to sacrifice our own good, including our lives to defend and protect our common independence.
For the Gambia our Homeland, We Strive and Work and Pray That all may Live in Unity, Freedom and Peace each day. Let Justice Guide our Actions, Towards the Common Good And join our diverse Peoples, To prove man’s Brotherhood
We pledge our Firm Allegiance, Our Promise we Renew Keep us Great God of Nations, To the Gambia ever True.
I have been advocating for true love, stability and the security of our nation. I have been supporting and praying for the Health and well-being of our people, I have been encouraging Peaceful co-existence between Christians, and Muslims and most importantly the need to submit ourselves to God Almighty.
I have been inspiring the love and celebration of our different culture which is valuable because it helps foster peace to our motherland.
As patriotic citizens, we must develop more spiritual attachment, as the founding fathers both Christians and Muslims celebrated religions, maintained peace, and harmony, respect and togetherness.
Fellow Gambians, as I earlier mentioned above, we have the Gambia as our only country, I urge every citizen to work towards Unity, Peace, Security and Stability of our great nation. We must see ourselves as one people; we must accept one another, bear each other’s burden, continue to love and celebrate one another. That is the spirit of Gambia, the smiling Coast of Africa, and we should continue smiling because it is our heritage.
Love your neighbour as you love yourself.
Fellow citizens, there is a bond that unites us and that is the powerful bond of LOVE, the more we continue to believe in ourselves, the stronger we love each other and the brighter we shine.
Loving and believing ourselves creates more possibilities, and when we truly desire great things, we can achieve even the hard-to-reach aspirations and dreams as a nation through strong Unity, Love, Togetherness, Harmony and unbroken Faith in God Almighty with our hard efforts.
The leaders
Leadership is a gift from God and the word of God commands us to submit to our leaders. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not and should not be terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from same.
The name we Gambians call our leaders, same name other nations will call them. Let’s join hands, help our leaders to be more focused and then discharge their duties effectively.
YES WE CAN.
Yes, we can together explore every possibility, as you strive hard and maintain a positive attitude. It may take a little longer, nonetheless we need patience, and we can definitely achieve if we didn’t give up, yes we can succeed as a nation when we stop fighting each other, when we stop criticizing our Leaders, when we stop discriminating, when we stop abusing and fighting being aggressive and hostile toward our leaders, those God Almighty appointed to rule over us.
May the grace of God Almighty continue to guide us as a nation under one God, one Goal and one Love.
May God continue to bless, protect and guide His Excellency the President Dr Adama Barrow, his family and his cabinet and his government with added wisdom, more understanding and keep increasing their knowledge.
Merry Christmas to our Motherland The Gambia, Merry Christmas to our leaders and to both Christians and Muslims in the mighty name of Jesus Christ the Nation’s Saviour, Amen.
