Nigeria’s Civil Violence “Will End Soon” Predicts Adventist Leader, Calling for Negotiations
by Monte Sahlin
By Adventist Today News Team, March 16, 2014
During interviews with journalists in Nigeria, Pastor Ted Wilson, president of the General Conference (GC) of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, has stated that "in no distant time God will bring an end to" the violence between religious and tribal factions in the northeast region of the country. He is in Nigeria to help celebrate the centennial of the Adventist faith in that country.
Wilson urged talks among "all aggrieved parties" at an airport news conference when he arrived in Lagos last Monday (March 10), according to the Daily Trust. "I will ask that the officials of government, both at state and Federal levels, look carefully to the Bible and to spiritual principles of how to resolve differences," he told reporters. "God does not wish people to settle differences in ways which will tear things apart, but rather to bring reconciliation."
On Wednesday, during a visit with Jonah Jang, governor of Plateau State, Wilson "said that God was not happy with the bloodbath in the north and would soon end it," according to the News Agency of Nigeria. "The insurgency in the north, especially [in] Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and Benue states, will soon come to an end because God is not happy with the bloodbath being recorded in the north," Wilson was quoted in the newspaper Punch.
"We in the Seventh-day Adventist Church are not happy that the insurgency in the north is persisting and it is our utmost prayer that God would intervene and bring an end to it," Wilson continued. "Our God is a God that answers prayers and God we believe that in no distant time God will bring an end to it." He pointed out that peace has come to Plateau state despite more than decade of violence there.
Wilson said that Nigeria is a beautiful country in which God is doing great works in the lives of people. He noted that the Adventist Church has expanded greatly in Nigeria and has affected the lives of many people both through "winning souls for Christ" and raising moral standards in society.
There are more than 2,100 local, Adventist congregations in Nigeria with a reported membership over 300,000 and at least 500,000 adherents. Babcock University is affiliated with the denomination as are eight secondary schools, and Adventists operate 15 community clinics, two veterinary clinics in rural areas, the Adventist Hospital in Ile-Ife, Jengre Adventist Hospital, Inisa Community Medical Centre and Edeoha Community Rehabilitation Center. The country has a population of 163 million.
