Restoring the power of summons to traditional rulers was a surest way to ending the menace of child marriages in communities across the country, the Queenmother of Pai-Kantaga in the Krachi East District of the Volta Region, Nana Asiedua II, has said.
Speaking to Today on the sidelines of a girls’ club fair to build the capacity of girls to resist early marriages in Accra last week, the queenmother argued that the expulsion of the law to summon subjects on some pertinent issues made it difficult for traditional rulers to exercise their authority in fighting some ills in the society.
“We are now handicapped and no longer respected in our jurisdictions because we don’t have the power to discipline anyone as was before and this is what is leading to the rise in issues of child marriages and other vices. You cannot summon parents for giving out their girls into marriages or even warn these girls against entering into the marriages because they know you cannot do anything to them when they go contrary,” she lamented.
He contended that a Supreme Court ruling on July 20, 2011 which clipped the chiefs’ power to summon had left them with little or no authority to invite and caution galamseyers against the nefarious act, especially as several attempts to have the law amended by the legislature, had proved futile.
“Somehow our MPs think that chiefs do not deserve this power or maybe because we were not in the position to influence the MPs like businessmen will do thereby undermining efforts to amend this law,” he bemoaned during an inter-ministerial committee forum against galamsey.
According to Nana Asiedua, “once the power is given back to us, we can call people to order without fear of being victimised and protect these girls as we would our own children so that they can realise their full potential and contribute to national development.”
She urged stakeholders to extend the sensitisation on child marriage to religious institutions to talk parents and guardians out of giving out their children into early marriages for a pittance.
Mrs. Victoria Darkoa Bampoe, who represented the La-Nkwantanang Municipal Director of Education, attributed the rise in child marriages to a complete breakdown in the country’s social structure.
“Most communities are not role models anymore for these girls. The way people cut their hair, how we behave, the sort of dresses we wear nowadays, the content of the media among others do not set a good example for them to emulate and parents themselves are no longer role models for their children,” she said.
Mrs. Bampoe entreated girls to have determination in life to withstand some of the challenges life presents to them and achieve their dreams.
Touching on the impact of the “End Child Marriage Campaign Project” since its inception in 2015, the Project Coordinator, Actionaid-Ghana, Mrs. Abena Anim-Adjei, said her outfit had actively engaged young groups in about 120 communities in the Greater Accra, Brong Ahafo, Upper East and Upper West Regions.
“We have facilitated and encouraged the formation of girls’ clubs in the schools and communities to empower girls to fight all forms of violence such as child marriages and claim their rights while equipping them with some vocational skills to enable them realise their potentials and champion their course in society,” she stated.
According to her, though the project which was being funded by the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) was expected to end in October 2017, “Actionaid would keep on pushing the agenda to end child marriage through other means possible until it is totally eradicated from our society.”
Some of the schools that participated in the fair included; Amrahia Basic School, Madina SDA School, Umarbunha Hatab’ Basic School and Agbogba Basic School.
The event was interspersed with cultural displays, poetry, exhibitions, songs and drama on ending child marriage.
It would be recalled that the President of the National House of Chiefs, Tobgui Afede, recently called on government to facilitate the restoration of their power to summon if traditional rulers were to play any significant role in the fight against illegal mining.
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