By George Best Okoroh
A couple of weeks after the celebration of Father’s Day, worldwide, the injunction given to Fathers by the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Mbaise, the His Lordship, the Rt. Rev. Chamberlain Ogunedo still reverberates.
The Bishop, also, berated Nigeria’s Leaders, and accused them of not only bringing about the sufferings of the people, but remain insensitive to them.
Ogunedo who took a hard look at what some families have been reduced to, and the attitude of some fathers, challenged them to take charge of their responsibilities as the Heads of their families.
The Bishop threw this challenge at them while saying the Homily at Our Saviour’s Church Ndigbo Uvuru, Aboh Mbaise, during the 2024 Father’s Day Celebration.
He reminded them that their lifestyles reflect on their families and the society at large, and asked to brace up for the sacred duties given to them by God. “You must bring your children up properly”, he charged them.
The Bishop also urged them to pursue peace and be the epitome of love and tolerance in their families and the larger society.
He encouraged fathers to live lives devoid of hatred, envy, slander, false witnesses and eschew adultery and drunkenness.
Bishop Ogunedo reminded them of the the theme of the celebration, “Go ye into the world and make disciples of all nations” (Matt.26:29), and counselled fathers to join in propagating this gospel message as commissioned by Jesus Christ.
He traced the history behind the formation of the Fathers’Day to a woman, Sonora Smart Dodd, of Spokane, Washington in 1909. Who, taking after the Mother’s Day celebration, originated the day in appreciation of her father’s role in her upbringing and enjoined fathers to always observe the day with all the seriousness it deserves.
The Bishop opined that religion and ethnicity have been the bane of the polity in Nigeria. He bemoaned a situation where people were more attached to their ethnic and religious tendency than to the oneness of the country.
He lamented the excruciating hardship the masses were going through and attributed it to the insensitivity of the leadership both at the States and Federal levels.
The Father’s Day is celebrated annually on the third Sunday in June.
