To reduce the challenges confronting the country, the Bible Society of Nigeria (BSN) charges Nigerians to read the Bible daily.

Pastor Samuel Sanusi, General Secretary (GS) and Chief Executive Officer of the society made the plea on Sunday in Lagos to declare open the 2021 edition of the Marathon Bible Reading organised by the society.

The event was hosted by the Saviour African Cathedral, Agege, a suburb of Lagos.

The theme for the 2021 edition is: “Read Aloud the Word of the Lord, Joshua 8:34″.

The GS, who drew inspiration from the book of Nehemiah 8: 1-3, said that one of the ways to achieve apart from the mission of the society which was to help people interact with the Word of God, was the Marathon Bible Reading.

“It is an annual weeklong noncompetitive Marathon Bible Reading that gives participants opportunity to read the Bible in any language of their choice uninterrupted for a period of five days.

“The unique feature of the exercise is that it gives participants the opportunity to read the Bible aloud in their mother tongue to the hearing of other people,” Sanusi said.

He said the daily meditative reading of the Bible and the inculcation of biblical virtues and living by the dictates of the scriptures would change the fortunes of Nigeria positively.

“I, therefore, want to use this medium to call on Nigerians to return to God by reading and obeying His Words.

“If we do this, corruption and other social ills prevalent in the country will be very minimal,” Sanusi said.

The CEO said that the 2021 edition would begin on September 6 in 73 different reading centers across Lagos State.

According to him, the programme holds simultaneously in 12 other states in the country.

He listed the states to include Oyo, Edo, Kwara, Osun, Adamawa, Ondo, Kogi, Ekiti, Imo, Niger and Ogun.

Sanusi said that the society was looking forward to when all the states in the country would participate in the Marathon Bible Reading.

“People, irrespective of denomination, profession, age or gender should visit any center closer to them in any of the participating states and take part in the programme from Monday, Sept. 6 to Friday, Sept. 10, 2021 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., ” Sanusi said.

He noted that over the years, the entire Bible had been read repeatedly within five days in the course of the programme in some of the reading centers.

Earlier, the Bishop of the Cathedral, Right Rev. Clement Afolabi thanked the society for choosing the church for the exercise.

Highlight of the occasion was the marathon reading of the Bible for almost an hour.

Certificates of participation were presented by the society to participants and also from the Lord Bishop to the GS.

NAN reports that the Bible Society of Nigeria is a not-for-profit interdenominational Christian organisation that translates the Bible into Nigerian Languages, publishes and distributes it and also raises funds for the Bible work.

So far, BSN has translated the full Bible in 26 Nigerian Languages, while translation/revision was ongoing in 10 languages.