This week we Christians conclude the forty day period of Lent which is meant to be characterised by repentance, almsgiving, fasting and prayer. Lent is a season of preparation for the solemn commemoration of the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the central mysteries upon which the entire Christian faith is founded. On Good Friday we mark Jesus' vicarious death on the cross. The brutal execution of the innocent Son of God brings abundant life to men and women who are otherwise guilty of sin and deserving of death.

On Easter Sunday we shall celebrate the Resurrection of this Son of God from the dead, a powerful testimony to the victory of good over evil, the triumph of light over darkness, and the conquest of wickedness, aggression, violence and death by the forces of love, peace, nonviolence and life.

Indeed the life, death and resurrection of Jesus put together, are a lesson on the efficacy of humility, service, self-sacrifice and true love, by which a person is prepared to die for his or her friends. Contemporary men and women can learn a lot from the supreme sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Jesus taught a lot of lessons through his parables and miracles, but the greatest lessons he taught are the lessons of his own life. He taught his followers that there is no greater love than for a man to lay down his life for his friends. And that is exactly what he did. He taught his followers that those who seek to be first must make themselves last and servant of all. And that is what he did when he washed the feet of his disciples and accepted a humiliating death in order that his they may live.

These are powerful lessons which today’s men and women, and particularly those who desire leadership positions in Nigeria, need to imbibe. Our experience of leadership in Nigeria has often been one of primitive greed and selfishness, rather than service and self-sacrifice. Far from denying themselves that their people may live, our own leaders have often stolen food off the hands of their starving poor. Also overwhelmed by the lust for power, and the desire to control and dominate others, our own leaders have often oppressed, abused and subjected their poor people to all forms of indignities. And in the urge to grab political power and to sit tight there even against the wishes of their people, we have recorded in our land, many cases of political violence, including assassination of opponents. All these are a marked departure, indeed an affront on the model of leadership and service demonstrated by Jesus Christ and celebrated during the Holy Week.

Thus the events marked during the Holy Week, including the Institution of the Eucharist and the Washing of the Feet on Maundy Thursday, the Crucifixion on Good Friday and the Resurrection on Easter Sunday, challenge all Christians, and especially incumbent and aspiring leaders in our land and elsewhere to abandon the paths of selfishness and greed, and the inordinate ambition for power at whatever cost, which have been the bane of our socio-political history. With his model of leadership founded on love, humility, service and sacrifice, Jesus challenges everyone to embrace those higher values that make for lasting peace and happiness.