Christians in Nigerian have embarked upon a 365-hours of non-stop praise concert to welcome the May 29 Democracy Day celebration.
The 2016 Democracy day will mark the first year of President Muhammadu Buhari in office.
Pastor Seyi Malomo, the Aso Villa Chaplain while speaking on Sunday at the concert tagged: “Halleluyah Nigeria,” said the praise concert was organised to thank God for keeping Nigeria united despite the religious and ethnic diversity in the country.
“The first reason is praise is a form of thanksgiving; so we thank God that we are together as a nation. The programme started at about 11am on May 14 at Sharon Ultimate Hotel and will end at National Christian Centre by 4pm on May 29, which is a Democracy Day, exactly one year of the anniversary of the inauguration of His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari and the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo.
“Other reason why it is set up is that we believe that with the way we are praising God, God will smile on our nation. We can feel the heartbeat; we can feel the sincerity of our leaders that they really want to ensure that this nation move forward and they are doing their best. The economy due to the falling oil price is being affected, a lot of things, but we believe that as we talk to God, God has a way of turning things round.”
He continued: “The other reason is that we have chosen 365 hours to mark every day of their anniversary. And then finally, it’s going to a world record because the highest non-stop musical concert in Africa was 65 hours, after that we have had 70, 71, 72, 73, and 74 by the Redeemed Christian Church of God. And then there was one in 2007, not praise but musical concert in Japan which was for 182 or 183 hours. We are going to 365 because we want to let the world know that great things happen in Nigeria. Nigeria is fantastically breaking record; we are doing great things. Those are the reasons behind it,”
While calling on all Nigerians to be a part of the program, the clergy said: “The Hallelujah Nigeria is tagged an initiative of God’s people in Nigeria praising God. It is an inter-denominational musical event. We are having gospel artistes from all the various denominations of the church; from ECWAS, Redeemed Christian Church of God, Cherubim and Seraphim, Catholic Church–letters have been sent to all; the Pentecostals, everybody, and then individual musicians, individual musical groups.
“It is for everybody, we want to make a statement that Nigeria is also in the scheme of things when it comes to world record and it is not an ego-building thing but something to let us know that we can achieve something from our various departments. This is a musical aspect of the church, we are challenging even others; those who are in the medical field to break record, those in the legal field to break record, educational field…so that we all do something to lift up the image of Nigeria.
“The call I am making is that we should celebrate what is honourable. Apart from the inter-denominational gathering of the churches, which come and go, there is a 70-man-choir team that has devoted themselves from the first day, taking shift every hour to ensure that this programme is non-stop. They are worthy of honour by Nigerians and the greatest honour is to celebrate God with them.
“So everybody should come and worship God, come and bless God and I know that as God did for Jehoshaphat that through praise, he gave him victory, he will give us victory as a nation and every group that comes will have victory, every church that comes will have victory and every individual, including myself and my family, we will not miss our victory in Jesus name.”