Plateau IDPs Charged to Imbibe godly Values as they Return home

The Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Center for Values and Attitudinal Reawakening (CVAR), Rev. Prof. Pandang Yamsat has charged church leaders at every level to imbibe godly values that build strong and healthy communities, as they prepare to go back home.

The CEO who is the former President of the Church of Christ in Nations, COCIN, charge at RCC Mangu Halle during a one-day seminar, organized by the RCC in collaboration with CVAR for Church leaders and traditional rulers.

According to him Christians must know and imbibe the godly values that make a community strong and healthy.

He lamented how godly values have been eroded from our society. “Nigeria has become a lawless country, in spite of the laws that we have,” he said.

Rev. Prof. Yamsat recalled how in the past, every community had its values and lifestyle which were binding on every member of the community. Back then, there was a value system in place. “But today there are no values, as everybody is doing what he or she feels like and nobody talks to him or her.”

He added that in Nigeria today, we are practicing road side or showroom Christianity, that is, rootless and fake Christianity that cannot stand the test of time. He called on the leaders of the various communities in the Region to go back to godly values as that is the only thing that can give them courage to build and save their communities from further destruction, because these values are God oriented. And for this reason, they must be connected and no other power or god.

He read from the book of Nehemiah 1:1-2 and spoke on the concern Nehemiah had for his homeland. According to him, that concern made Nehemiah to abandoned his luxurious life in the palace in Persia. That concern gave him the courage to initiate the move for the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

It took one man to start a process of rebuilding Jerusalem and so he challenged every leader to take his or her stand and make sure God is at the centre of his or her desire to be part of the desire to return and build his or her community.

While calling on the Church leaders and traditional rulers to embraced faith and courage as they prepare to go to back and build their communities, the CEO said that this is what will please God and inspire their followers to respect and follow their leading.

He called on the traditional rulers to know their position in Christ so as to lead their people with confidence. “It is the Lord that has made you a Pastor or traditional ruler and it is the same Lord that will give you courage to lead the people and you must remain connected to him.

“If we will go back to rebuild our communities, we must reconcile with one another. We must know the things we need and we must be organized. “Our problems as Christians and as a Church is that we are not organized.” Rev. Prof. Yamsat added.

The RCC Chairman Rev. Samuel Mujwan Taptwa in an interview with the Light Bearer said that the aim of the Seminar is to bring the leadership of the Church and the communities together to work out a new approach to the system of life, especially after what happened.

According to him the way they are going to live now is certainly not going to be the same, as they are now aware of the enemies around them. He said in the past, they did not bother about neighborhood watch and were less security conscious. “but now that we have an enemy confronting us, we have to gather momentum and build synergy on how to rebuild and safeguard our communities.”

“This seminar is geared towards bringing together, encouraging and comforting one another. This shows that there is hope, even though looking at what has happened, we were almost giving up. Whenever the enemies strike, they want to cause us to be fearful and even abandoned what we want to do,” Rev. Taptwa added.

He described the seminar as successful in view of the passion with which the people participated and the anxiety created in them by the teaching to go back to their homes. He added that the RCC is working towards resettling the people back to their destroyed communities.

However, this is going to be a gradual process. They are taking one step at a time, because they want to be sure they succeed in rebuilding all the communities destroyed in the area. For now, they are cultivating their farms in the displaced communities. Other stages will follow thereafter.

Interacting with some of the displaced persons who attended the seminar, they shared some of the valuable lessons they learned from the teaching and expressed interest and willingness to go back to their homes, where they were dislodged by the Fulani herdsmen. However, they appealed for more security especially for communities at the boundary with Bokkos Local Government Area.

According to Kilobas Bala from Mangul, “we are willing to go back to our communities where we were displaced by herdsmen. We are going through a lot of challenges as refugees and life has not been easy for us. If we were in our homes, life wouldn’t have been like this for us.” He further added that the seminar has really prepared and increased his desire to go back and some of the lessons he learned includes the need for unity and being organized as a community.

On her part Mrs. Paulina Danjuma from Murish said they were living with serious trauma, but the teaching from the seminar has relieved them and they are in support of the State government’s resettlement plan. “… we are not finding life easy as displaced persons. It is very strange for us. Back at home then, we use to plant vegetables and okra for soup, rear our animals and enjoy our lives, but now all these things we have to buy at a very high price.” She also appealed to the government to help them to rebuild their destroyed houses.

Mr. Zakariah Hosea, and Mr. Ezekiel Pekhinman, Village Heads of Dungunan and Gongong, respectively in their separate responses described the seminar as very timely and coming at a time they are preparing the people for resettlement back to their respective communities.

“We have been having series of meetings to prepare our people to return home where we were displaced to continue with our normal life. And in preparation for the farming season, we have advised them to form groups so that we can talk to the government to help us with tractors to cultivate the land at the same time.” Mr. Hosea said.

According to them, the teaching during the seminar, especially lessons on faith and courage has really strengthen them. And as traditional rulers and Pastors, they have learned to be united, forgive the wrongs of the past and be reconciled with one another as that is the only way to grow as a community.

The Leading Pastor, COCIN Church Danhausa, Rev. Ayuba Kwatben, in his response said, though they are displaced, they have been worshipping together as a Church in Mangu town and in their plan to relocate back, they once organized a church service in the destroyed Church building with his members.

“While the service was going on, the Fulani herdsmen came and were dancing outside the Church. We ignored them and we had a successful worship service and the people were very happy. Some of them took time to visit the ruins of their destroyed homes in the village before returning to Mangu town.” Rev. Kwatben said.

He added that the seminar has really awakened him from his sleep. He even felt his past efforts have not been good enough and he has to put in more efforts towards returning to their homes even though their houses were completely destroyed by the Fulani herdsmen. The teaching has taken away our fears, build our faith and has given us the courage to return and rebuild our destroyed communities, just like Nehemiah did.