Human Rights Lawyer and a former Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Bampoe Addo has described the absence of Sara Adwoa Safo who is the current sector Minister as serious social crisis which demands the President to sit up and take a decision to get a substantive minster to oversee the ministry.
She stressed that one would have expected that the gains that were made under former President John Mahama in gender and social protection would be continued under President Akufo-Addo and further strengthened but we are rather retrogressing.
“Today LEAP is in arrears, we have flogging of citizens, people are dropping out of school, huge numbers of teenage pregnancy and several other vices. We ask Nana Akuffo-Addo to walk in the steps of John Dramani Mahama and give close attention to the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection,” she said.
The human rights advocate further indicated that it is a grave concern to her to see the ministry we call the People’s Ministry which has the mandate to discharge a lot of duties such as; catering for the aged, protecting children, ensuring the welfare of vulnerable groups including the Persons with Disabilities, as well as coordinating important government interventions and programs is being left to retrogress.
“What is happening is not good for the children of Ghana, it is not good for Persons with Disabilities, and it is not good for the aged. Look at what is happening to School Feeding, up till now we give under one cedi for the feeding of each child. For the very first time in so many years, the LEAP Payments are in arrears. People rely on these money to sustain their livelihood hence it is troubling when this money delayed” she said on 3FM Sunrise Morning Show on Wednesday 1 May, 2022
Nana Oye pointed out that the ministry was calve out to especially take care of the vulnerable in our society to ensure reduction of poverty by better targeting the vulnerable of the population, but an assessment of the mandate of the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection and the results at hand, shows obviously that things aren’t well.
She insists that whatever it is, there is a need for the President of Ghana to sit up and take a decision in appointing a substantive minister for the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to see to it that the work is well done.
As we have it now work has slowed down, there is retrogression and it is not good for the people of Ghana and especially for the demographic groups aforementioned. They are suffering and it is not good for the future of the children of Ghana.
“When children go to school they are supposed to be fed but they are not fed, adolescent girls are getting pregnant, poor people who earn under one dollar a day now they are supposed to receive some money from government to cushion them but for some months now they are not getting the money”
The former sector minister also attributes the increase in child delinquency and several other social vices to the inefficiency of the Gender Ministry and recommends to President Akuffo-Addo to take a decision to make sure that the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection receive the leadership and resources to run efficiently and effectively to forestall further retrogression.
By Samuel Afriyie Owusu|3news.com|Ghana
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