The President of Voice of His Word Ministries, Lagos, Dr Bolaji Akinyemi, has called on governments, organisations, concerned individuals, especially the Christian fold, to show love towards the hundreds of children orphaned by the killing of their innocent parents by bandits during an attack in 11 communities in Bokkos Local Government areas of Plateau State last year.
Recall that the gruesome murder took place between December 23 and 25, 2023 with numbers of fatalities ranging from 148 to 195, while about 300 people were injured and thousands displaced.
Dr Akinyemi who made the call in a message on Thursday, stressed that this year celebration of Christmas, which coincided with the the tragic event during last year Christmas, was an opportune time for concerned Nigerians and governments to reflect on the painful incident as well as the pains that the orphans had been going through and show them love by catering for their protection and welfare.
He disclosed that the Voice of His Word Ministries demonstrated such passion recently when it organised a Christmas dinner tagged: ChristMax” to mark the first anniversary of the carnage and the orphans’ ordeals with a view to felicitating with them.
“Every concerned Nigerian, particularly the Christian fold, governments and organisations owe the hapless and vulnerable children a duty to show them love, not only during Christmas when they lost their parents, but always. We can do this by caring for their protection, welfare, including feeding and education because many of them are internally displaced. Doing this would give them a sense of belonging, fear of God and because they could be leaders of tomorrow,” Dr Bolaji said.
“We will continue with the sustainability of the children learning programme and feeding because nobody knows whether among these boys we have presidents, governors, senators, ministers tomorrow,” he stressed.
“The one year Christmax celebration with the 950 internally displaced children was to restore the spirit of Christmas which the enemies of our faith sought to exterminate last year! Joy to the world, Christmas will forever be,” Dr Akinyemi said.
He reiterated the Voice of His Word Ministries’ commitment to ensuring that the welfare of the vulnerable children remains its priority.
While emphasizing the need to train children for tomorrow, Akinyemi drew an analogy from Jesus’ birth who was born and nurtured by God to stardom as the Saviour of the world who also affected the lives of mankind positively.
“Culture takes over when a child is born to build that child into a son. However, the culture of the Jewish people nurtured Jesus Christ into a global model as a man of peace to fulfill His prophetic destiny as the Prince of Peace. As his custom was, he went into the temple and read from the scriptures what was written concerning Him and even taught people that were older than him in God’s temple because He is full of wisdom.
“It’s our responsibility as the government, communities and families to bring up our children as a nation according to what is written in our constitution concerning every Nigerian child. This is the lacuna some enemies are feasting on to train bandits, extremists and kidnappers. As a nation, we must come together to determine the sonship products we want to harvest from our children.
Dr Akinyemi, however, expressed worries that one year after the killings, “the criminals behind the massacre of over 200 souls have not been brought to book.”
“It’s sad that a year has gone by without any news on the perpetrators. Justice for them is the meal that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu owes humanity this Christmas,” he stressed.
“We need to put a system in place to bring up our children with the fear of God. The Bible says that children are the heritage of the Lord. The Bible shows Jesus Christ as an example of how to grow a child into sonship, saying that unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. Our responsibility is to nurture our children to sonship because God can’t do that for us. We can develop a syllabus and curriculum of training that will help us achieve that.
Akinyemi also called on the government to secure the country from bandits who are parading themselves as religious leaders.
While expressing worries over the vulnerability of the orphaned children, Dr Akinyemi commended Rhoda Sanda, the
founder of Guardian of Hope, who has been providing succour to the IDP children as well as her contributions to the success of ChristMaX.
“We also have a professional to help the children with trauma and counseling led by Mrs Nenfwotmwa Mafwalal, an infant mental health therapist, a play therapist, a trauma competent care giver and lover of children,” he added.
