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Traditional leaders in the Oguaa Traditional Area have lamented how the activities of some child rights organizations have interfered with their ability to adequately discipline their undisciplined children and wards.
The interference of such child rights groups, the chiefs revealed has resulted in the rising spate of teenage pregnancy and child marriages in the paramountcy.
The traditional leaders made this known at the opening ceremony of a two-day capacity-building workshop for the traditional rulers organised jointly by the UNFPA and OBAAPA Development Foundation under the theme: “Ending Child Marriage in Ghana one paramountcy at a time”.
“They[people] have been calling us chiefs but we don’t have that authority as Chiefs to deal or punish our citizens or subjects who misbehave. The Chiefs are representing the communities but the wisdom and the authority which we should exact on behalf of our communities is not there.
We are asking people in the authorities that chiefs are recognized as fathers of the community and therefore chiefs should have a right to control whatever goes on in their environment that is why if a Chief wants the betterment of his citizens, he can make laws which are not contrary to the laws of the land. If he can do that then he must be given that chance to make sure that the law is obeyed by his citizens,” the Paramount Chief of Oguaa Traditional Area, Osabarima Kwesi Atta II stated.
He added that “at times some children even want you to get up from the chair an elderly person is sitting on it for him or her all in the name of child’s rights.”
On her part, the Executive Director of the OBAAPA Development Foundation and Queenmother of Afigya Kwabre in the Ashanti Region, Nanahemaa Adwoa Awindor, underscored the role of traditional leaders in ending the menace of teenage pregnancy and child marriage, which she said robs many young girls of a brighter future.
She therefore appealed to the Traditional authorities to team up with opinion leaders and law enforcement agencies to educate the children in their various communities so that they know the law and dangers of child marriage.
Nanahemaa Awindor charged the girls to be bold enough to stand up and fight for themselves against forced marriages and pressure coming from their parents and their peers as well.
