The closure and reopening of places of worship by the government as part of efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, according clerics and religion faithfuls has taught Nigerians many lessons.
Speaking with Swagenews correspondent Oluwaseun Shittu, both Christians and Muslims agreed that COVID-19 has taught Nigerians to have better relationship with God.
Pastor (Mrs.) Catherine Sanusi of All Saints Church of Christ said the closure of churches made her realize that God is indeed omnipresence.
“it makes me to know that without going into the church as a building, I can easily speak to my God almighty, and He will surely hear me” the cleric explained.
A believer, Mr. Oluwaseun Omo’olorire shared same view. According to him, believers should keep good relationship with God, even without going to church.
Omo’olorire said “whether church or not, you must remain a believer and you must remain a righteous person, this is a great lesson for us”.
Speaking further, Pastor Sanusi said heart of giving was another lesson she gained through COVID-19 and closure of churches.
“It gave me the heart of giving to people because I got to see that many people don’t have what to eat, so from what I have, I was able to give out including clothing” she said.
In the same vein, Assistant Pastor Niyi Ajanlekoko of the Redeemed Christians Church of God said brethren could smile and worship together after the lockdown because members embraced heart of giving the during the lockdown.
“During the lockdown so many people experienced a lot of challenges and because we are knitted together as a body of Christ, we were able to help each other through the challenges and today we can all smile and laugh and worship together again” Ajanlekoko said.
A Muslim faithful, Mr. Tajudeen Oseni said supremacy of Allah was a major lesson learnt.
“When the pandemic just arrived, we thought we will be able to control it within weeks or months, it now got to five months, indeed we are all weak, we should all rely on God over anything that we want to do and put God first in everything” Oseni advised.
For Pastor (Mrs.) Olajoke Adelaja of the Redeemed Christians Church of God, the need to improve on the use of social media to propagate the gospel was a major lesson learnt from closure of worship centres.
“One of the lessons that we learnt is that we have to improve on our social media, we don’t solely relent that unless we gather, no service. We can have service without gathering” the cleric pointed out.
Assistant pastor Ajanlekoko corroborated her saying “going forward we must embrace technology fully”.
Mr. Omo’olorire advised parents to still create time for their children, the same way they did during the lockdown.
Respondents advised Nigerians to always save no matter how small their incomes are, noting that it is essential for everyone to prepare for emergency.
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