Landdeynaija

Today should feel a lot lighter. It should be all about the pure, uninterrupted sound of laughter, bright balloons, and our children just being completely, beautifully carefree. And for many of us, we will hold our little ones close today and deeply cherish those smiles.

But it is incredibly hard to shake the heavy reality that right now, in this exact same country, there are parents whose hearts are breaking. Parents who are crying today because their children are in the custody of kidnappers.

I shudder at the very thought of it. It makes me realize that we are gradually becoming kidnappers to our own thoughts and feelings. We see so much heartbreak back to back that we’ve learned to lock away our raw emotions. We move on so quickly from incidents that should honestly shake us to our very core, just so we can keep going, keep working, and keep surviving.

But if we keep holding our empathy hostage just to cope, we lose a piece of our humanity. We cannot let ourselves become numb to the pain of another parent. True love for our children means we refuse to look away.

So today, at LandDeyNaija, we are holding two things tightly in our hearts: a deep, quiet prayer for every single child who isn’t home yet... and a fierce, protective commitment to cherish, celebrate, and build a safer tomorrow for the ones who are here with us right now.

The future belongs to them. Let’s protect it together. 🧡✨

Happy Children’s Day.