Abuja, Nigeria—UPF-Nigeria celebrated the Global Day of Parents by calling on all leaders to serve their constituencies with the heart of true parents.
The celebration, held on June 1, 2015, at the UPF Peace Education Center in Abuja, featured a roundtable discussion on raising leaders with the heart of parents and facilitating the emergence of communities, states and the nation to become a unified family under God.
The event was organized in part to increase awareness of the importance of parenthood and parenting. UPF-Nigeria Secretary General Dr. Raphael Ogar Oko told the participants that he hoped they “would be empowered to be active parents in your families as well as extend the family model of parental leadership to the wider society.”
He also said: “UPF is a parental organization seeking to promote the ideal of true parenthood throughout the world. We believe that the several challenges that our world is facing today will be solved if all parents become true parents.”
UPF Founders Dr. Sun Myung Moon and Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon both set the standard of living for the sake of all people of the world, Dr. Ogar Oko said.
The lead presentations, which were excerpts from the teachings of the UPF founders, emphasized the relationship between parents, teachers and leaders. If leaders have a parental heart, citizens will be served as their children and, instead of a focus on the rule of laws, leaders will seek to lead with parental love.
Participants noted with great concern the present situation in which several policies of government are undermining the position of parents in the family. The declining influence of parents over their children has led to the appearance of all forms of social vices. To halt this ugly trend and create a peaceful society, there is the need to empower parents.
The celebration also featured the presentation of Ambassadors for Peace certificates to two women leaders in recognition of their outstanding work as peacebuilders in their communities.