Martins spoke on Wednesday at a news conference on the Marian Year celebration at the Holy Cross Cathedral, Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the celebration is to mark the centenary of Mary’s apparition to the Three Shepherd children of Fatima in Portugal 1917.
Pope Francis, in view of this, had declared a Centenary Celebration running from Nov. 27 2016 to Nov. 26 2017.
In Nigeria, the Marian Year is dedicated to the blessed virgin Mary as the Queen and patroness of Nigeria.
Martins said Nigeria was in need of healing in several areas, and assured the faithful that their prayers were not in vain.
”I have good news for all my fellow countrymen, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The prayers of God’s children in this last one year will not be in vain.
”He will surely restore the glory of the nation and bring to shame all those who have consistently worked to hold us in perpetual bandage.
”Our assurance that God will restore the glory of the nation requires that we also rededicate ourselves to living lives of righteousness, shun sin and embrace the truth,” he said.
The archbishop regretted that innocent lives were being lost to Boko Haram and herdsmen attacks, among others, praying that God would help the nation to overcome the problems.
Martins said that the Marian Year celebration was to give all Christians in the country the opportunity to give special honour to the blessed virgin Mary.
He said it was also to seek her maternal intercession with her son, Jesus Christ, for the needs of families, individuals in the nation, and the nation as a whole.
