For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous; With favor You will surround him as with a shield. - Psalm 5:12 (NKJV)

Childhood
Reni is the sixth and the only girl born to devoutly Christian parents late Mr. Martins and Mrs. Juliana Onaiyekan in the Kabba town of Kogi State, Nigeria;

 

She never grew up to know her father. "I was told that he went to be with the Lord when I was six months old." She did not have the opportunity to enjoy motherly love for long for her mother died when she was seven years old. "However," said she, "I'm thankful to God to have known her for this short period, I still have a good memory of her and despite the various needs I had as a child, love was something I never lacked both in and out of home".

Reni became an orphan at age seven. To care for her, she had only God and her aunt who was only a petty trader. Reni learned to depend on God early in life.

 

Her aunt enrolled her shortly after her mum passed away in the choir of St. Andrew's Anglican Church Kabba.
" I would say that the favor of God, as well as the love of everyone saw me through and in fact enabled people to appreciate the gift of singing that the Lord has put in me. I received much favorable response and encouragement from the congregation with the result that I got various opportunities to sing solo in church. "In my Yoruba culture", explains Reni, "singing is an emotional act, or, to put it differently, an expression of emotion. Thus, a song is, so to say, thoughts of the heart. I must say that from early life, God blessed me with a talent to sing or, in a manner of speaking; He put a song in my heart. Indeed, the story of my life so far and in spite of the odds is, I believe, a song – of joy, of gratitude, and of praise to my Father in heaven".