Mr. Thomas Donkor Okaja, District Chief Executive (DCE) for Nanumba South has advised parents in the district to discard the outdated practice of forced marriages in the area and allow their daughters to choose their own spouses.
He said parents should rather take advantage of the school feeding programme and the capitation grant to enrol their children, especially girls in schools for a better future instead of resorting to negative cultural practices that had no positive impact on their children's welfare. Mr. Okaja gave the advice at Wulensi, capital of the Nanumba South District, when he addressed school children, security forces and artisans at the District in connection with the celebration of the 51st Independence Anniversary.
In all, more than 600 school children drawn from primary schools, Junior High Schools and the Wulensi Senior High School as well as some security forces and artisans took part in the celebration, which brought together traditional leaders from the three Area Councils to participate in the celebration. Mr. Okaja said despite various education and interventions to stop the old age practice of forced marriages, the practice was still rampant in the area and indicated that six out of 10 girls were forced into marriages, sometimes married to oldmen. He said there were instances where the District Assembly intervened with resistance from some parents to withdraw schoolgirls from forced marital homes to allow them to continue with their education.
Mr. Okaja said the practice was making it difficult for majority of the girls to go beyond primary school, while those who finished Junior High Schools could not get access to Senior High School education even if they passed their examinations. He appealed to authorities at the District Education office to monitor the progress of girls particularly the brilliant ones from primary to Senior High to ensure that they were not withdrawn for marriages to improve education in the district. On peace, the DCE appealed to the youth in the various political parties in the district to ensure peaceful electioneering campaign for election 2008 to promote unity, brotherliness and development. He said peace was a cardinal point of true democracy, development and progress and advised them to avoid the use of provocative language that would inflame passions to create political mayhem. Mr. Okaja used the occasion to explain to the people government policies and plans to develop the newly created Wulensi district to befit its status and appealed to communities that had not yet received any form of development under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to remain patient since the national cake would be distributed equitably. He said the NPP government would continue to meet the needs and aspirations of the people so that the electorate would also continue to vote to retain the government to offer them good governance.
