From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
President Buhari
A non-Governmental Organisation, Foundation for Enhancement and Promotion of Family Life (FEPFL) has praised President Muhammadu Buhari for the creation of the Ministry for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.
In a statement signed by Mr John Amabi, Executive Director, FEPFL and made available to Our Correspondent in Lokoja on Tuesday, the NGO, under the auspices of “Network of NGOs on Family and Moral Empowerment (NFME)” said creation of the ministry was long overdue.
The Network said the creation had laid to rest, issues of oversight claims on some departments by some ministries citing recent publication by the Ministry of Interior that it was in charge of Marriage Registration.
“The Ministry does not have the structure and the manpower to do the job of marriage registration, counseling, reconciliation and child welfare services which are the mandate of the social welfare department.”
It urged that the aspect of Marriage Registration and Family be domiciled in the new Humanitarian Ministry as a mandate of the social welfare department to enhance services on family and human moral development.
The Network also demanded governments’ total commitment to social welfare for the wellbeing of Nigerian citizens, saying that it had observed that governments’ neglect of the Social Welfare Department at various levels was responsible for the crimes and criminality in the society.
According to the Network, marriage registration is a section in the complete process that results in peaceful marriage from which human morals are developed for attainment of moralities that enhance personal and social peace.
The NGO however, advised the Interior Ministry to initiate dialogue with the stakeholders on areas of possible collaboration in marriage processing to get a perfect process for the family to address situations of insecurity rather than wholesome takeover of the process.
