(Advocate against cheating and of peaceful co-existence)
The Psalmist implicitly lays emphasis on the importance of children when he says, “Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is His reward. As arrows are in the hands of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them….” – Psalm 127:3-5.
Without, even being told by the Good Old Document (The Bible), nobody will deny the fact that children are an important spoke in the wheel of the maintenance of the human race. It is through them that the chain of the human race is maintained and prolonged.Just imagine what would happen in a country within, for instance, a period of fifty years, during which no birth would take place, while people keep on dying! It would certainly be heading toward sextinction.
Children are also looked upon as immense national assets, for they grow up to fill national positions of responsibility, where the old ones would leave off, due to either death or retirement, as I once observed in this column.This apart, children are expected to be an economic rod of support for their parents in the former’s adulthood. Thus, barren women move heaven and earth to have them.
Against his background, coupled with the fact that children are blessings from God, it is ironical that some women who are blessed with fertile wombs are unwilling to keep their babies when they have them. They don’t feel any conscience in killing the innocent little jewels by dumping them in gutters, bushes, toilets on refuse dumps,etc.
Women are, naturally known to have very tender spots in their hearts for children and the reason is not far-fetched. The physical and emotional pains they go through for solid nine months before their babies are born are so agonizing that tender loved for babies in general is perpetually implanted in their system.It is only those with stony hearts, obviously taken over by Kwadwo Lucifer, who will think of destroying their own babies on such a callous manner such as exposing them to cruel agents of death.
REASONS
The reasons some of them usually assign for their satanic acts against these little angels, such as economic hardships, are not tenable at all. For, in most cases, the women themselves are to blame. Some of them refuse to exercise restraint to affairs.
To them, men and their money are sweeter than anything ever under the sun, and they should be allowed to suck them neat and clean. What some girls fail to realize is that some men just love fun. Any amorous relationship they may have with the girls lacks seriousness. This is because most of these fun-loving men have legitimate wives and children towards whom their first concern goes.
In the event of any conception resulting from such a “back-door”relationship, there is the likelihood of the men denying responsibility to save them from the wrath of their wives, as well as from financial burden, even though, such an act is cowardly and reprehensible.
It is when some of the girls find themselves in such an embarrassing and hellish situation that they become panicky and decide to abandon their fatherless babies when they are finally born. Those who decide to “deflate” their “swollen” tummies may be lucky and end up saying a premature good-bye to this world or being barren for the rest of their lives out of some abortion complications.
In some cases, even though the men accept responsibility of the pregnancies, the poor babies are woefully neglected, when they are finally born. Their unemployed mothers, therefore, abandon them for lack of means of livelihood.
SOCIAL CANKER
Child-abandonment is a social canker that adversely affects the society. Such unfortunate children, if found alive, become a liability to the State, which is expected to cater for them to enable them play their responsible roles nationally. This apart, such children may grow up with some psychological problems, if they become aware of their sad background. They may grow up with a sense of inferiority complex and frustration, since they may think society does not need them. They may, thus, turn against it by being perpetrators of criminal acts of all types.
NO SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE
This unfortunate trend must be arrested at all costs. According to the sages, whenever you see smoke, it signifies the presences of fire.Except the Virgin Mary of biblical fame, no woman has ever been known to have conceived on her own!Biologically, men are always involved. A sizeable portion of the blame for this social menace must, therefore, be laid at the doorstep, even“in the bedroom” of the men.
Despite the fact that some men may not have marriage plans in mind,they throw caution overboard and handle their girlfriends anyhow,using them without any contraceptive. A school of thought suggests that if a mother abandons her baby and is caught, her boyfriend should be prosecuted too. If a wife abandons her baby, her husband should also be treated in the same way as it might be due to a level of neglect she was subjected to by her man that forced her to abandon her baby.
As a colleague observed that since the law seems to be lenient with such irresponsible men they refuse to take the necessary measures to prevent the so-called unwanted pregnancies to forestall the possibility of the babies being abandoned when they are born. How true is his observation. Prosecuting such men along with the women would go a long way in minimizing, if not eradicating child abandonment.
Apart from the deterrent precaution, women bodies such as the National Council on Women and Development in collaboration with the National Commission for Civic Education should initiate a sustained, intensive and extensive campaign against this social
evil.The various District Assemblies, assisted by their local FM stations should mount a serious programme to educate both women and men against this menace.
DAUGHTERS MUST BE ASSISTED
Parents of young girls should do all in their power to help them learn a trade or vocation especially when the girls drop out of school, due to early pregnancies. They should not be left to their date, when they find themselves saddled with fatherless children. Parents have
the bounden duty to help them to cater for the children to avoid their being thrown away.
Wives with children whose fathers have neglected them should seek advice from the department of Social Welfare, instead of leaving these sweet little ones to die at unfriendly spots. The Department as its own programme to deal with irresponsible fathers.
CHILDREN, PRECIOUS POSSESSION
Women should realise that children are the most precious possession inthe life of a woman and that they must not be so callous to destroythe little angels in any way. Who knows the child you abandon may bedestined to be a national figure and you will lose the golden chanceof being looked upon as a woman who has produced, for example, a Head
of State, a pride and honour no mother would spurn.For heaven’s sake, please DON’T THROW THE BABIES AWAY.
PERISCOPE By
GODFRIED K. ARHIN-KUMI
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Chronicle’s stance.
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