My 1st marriage collapsed because I married ‘too young’- Duncan Williams explains

Presiding Archbishop and General Overseer of the Christian Action Faith Ministries (CAFM) Nicholas Duncan Williams has given a chilly account of why his first Marriage to Mama Francisca broke down, revealing it was because he married as a ‘boy’ who was afraid of the temptation of falling into sin.

Archbishop Duncan-Williams and his first wife, ‘Mama’ Francisca, in 2007 walked out of their 26-year-old marriage due to what the Bishop said were “irreconcilable differences.”

The Papa, as he is known to his over 20,000 congregants far back in April 2008, married Rosa Whitaker, the CEO and President of the Whitaker Group, a Washington, D.C.-based consultancy specializing in trade and investment in Africa.

Attempts to settle the divorce out of court failed, with murky details of the marriage playing out in the media and the US-based children of the couple joining the fight against their mother, whom they accused of mistreating their father and being the source of their marital problems.

In a letter read to the congregation in 2006, Bishop Duncan-William said “the challenges in my marriage are personal and shall remain private for the sake of our children and loved ones,” noting however that “the decision on my part was not taken in a haste without years of prayer, best efforts and Christian counseling”.

More than 10 years on, Duncan-Williams, maintains he still believes in the sanctity of marriage.

He said, he married consciously but he did not know anything about the making up of marriage.

Archbishop Duncan-Williams stated that at age 24, he was asked to marry in other not to fall into the trap of sin.

Quoting the scripture on marriage, he said: “For this reason, a man shall live his father and the mother and joined his wife”, not a boy shall leave the father and mother and join his girl,” he emphasized.

According to him, “a matured man is a man who truly qualifies to be called a married man, insisting that a married man is a mature man and a mature man is one who is well developed mentally, economically, spiritually, physically, psychologically and emotionally strong.”

He was speaking at the International Youth Empowerment Summit in Accra.

He added that marriage is not for boys because boys do not marry and that he was a boy in his first marriage.

According to the CAFM General Overseer, a man is truly the one who understands and takes responsibilities, takes full charge and control them without any external power while a mature man is always focused and decisive.

He contended that men marry for a tangible purpose but boys and most of young men of today marry because of sexual satisfaction and lust of the human flesh.