#BRING BACK OUR FATHERS

On the 14^th to 15^th of April 2014, about 270+ school girls were kidnapped from the Chibok Government Secondary School by Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria. The #BringBackOurGirls hash tag was later launched to spread awareness of the kidnapping. Similarly, #BringBackOurFathers is a hash tag I have launched to spread awareness of the grief and cries of the fatherless children who over the years have been making a living on the streets of Cape Coast.

Cape Coast has majority of its populace made up of students. Many of who do not originate from Cape Coast, therefore living independently with little or no supervision from family members or elders in the society. This enthusiastic approach to independence breeds a lot of sexual immorality and indiscipline among majority of these students. These young and immature students at the Junior High School level as well as old and hypothetically “mature” students at the University level take advantage of the female natives of Cape Coast sexually. This unpardonable act of indiscipline among our male student populace must be put to an end.

Rather strangely, these students hardly realize that the result of their actions contributes largely to the predominance of teenage pregnancy cases in Cape Coast since their intentions were mostly for the mere sake of pleasure. An old Ga adage “K3 otaw) ole ots3 b3 yaa bi ony3” literally translated in English as “If one wants to know who his/her biological father is, should go and ask his/her mother” does not hold water in the land of Cape Coast. It may sound illogical but truth is the teenage mother cannot tell for a fact the real identity of the father of her child. One may be tempted to attribute this to the high rate of illiteracy and immaturity prevalent among these ladies. I beg to differ; I have stayed at various places in the Cape Coast Metropolis and can state for a fact that these assertions, to some extent, are not always the case. The unscrupulous indiscriminate sexual activities of the male student populace remain undoubtedly the highest contributing factor to this undying canker.

These children at an implausible age of 2 years find themselves on the streets of Amamoma, Apewosika and Kwapro to mention a few, begging for bread. To add insult to injury, some native women pick up these little children from the streets and carry them behind their backs as though they were their mothers so they can use them as bait to beg from the community.

In Accra where I reside, Teshie-Nungua to be specific, we experience a similar case of teenage pregnancy but not street children. This is because these children are sent to the families of the man involved to be taken care of. They do not live on the streets and this can be associated to the fact that the family house of the man involved is known by most if not all the members of the lady’s family. In contrast, the lady in Cape Coast can hardly point to the actual room, hostel, school or even a friend related to the man involved. In the best of cases, which I must admit, is a rare happening, if the lady can identify the father of her child, the man happens to be the only family she knows of the man. He may in most cases be almost at the end of his secondary/tertiary education and will be headed back to his home town or place of residence away from Cape Coast.

These young ones grow up exhibiting dangerous behaviors and as though it were harvest time for the seed of the indiscriminate sexual activities planted by our male student populace, they attack and rob students ruthlessly. An eye for an eye I must add.

In a related development, Central Region according to the 2011 Sentinel Report recorded an HIV prevelence of 4.7% as against 1.7% in 2010 replacing Eastern Region at the first position. This can be largely attributed to the indiscriminate sexual activities between male students and the female natives (teenagers happen to form the majority) of Cape Coast.

On behalf of these little ones making a living on the streets of Cape Coast, we petition Ghana to aid them in their fervent search of their biological fathers and family.

#BringBackOurFathers

#SAYNOTOHIV/AIDS

#TEENAGEPREGNANCYMUSTSTOP

Disclaimer: Any #BringBackOurFathers hash tag on any social media platform that does NOT seek to address the grief and cries of the fatherless children of Cape Coast should NOT be associated with this campaign.