Pay more attention to education of Muslim girls — Prez

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has appealed to Muslims to pay as much attention to the education of their female children just as that of their male counterparts.

President Akufo-Addo, who made the appeal at this year’s national Eid-ul-Fitr prayers held at the Black Star Square, said the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, led by the Minister, Ms Otiko Afisa Djaba, had embarked on a campaign to dissuade parents from marrying out their girls and urged Muslims to embrace such a campaign.

“In Islam, it is believed that paradise lies under the feet of our mothers; our mothers and potential mothers cannot, therefore, hold to guarantee us paradise if they are allowed to remain ignorant,” the President stated.

The President, who was named in 2017 as the AU Gender Champion and the Co-Chair of the UN SDGs Advocates, said he was very passionate about the development of women and asked that Muslim girls, and for that matter girls in general, should be allowed to realise their full potential.

He stressed the commitment of his government to make education accessible to all and urged Muslims to take advantage of the free senior high school (SHS) policy.

To show his support for the advancement of the girl-Child President Akufo-Addo in December 2017, launched the ‘HeForShe’ platform to advocate men’s support for women’s advancement.

At the Eid-ul-Fitr prayers he stated that the government had engaged about 2000 instructors to teach Arabic in schools and called an girls to take advantage of it

Religious tolerance

Describing Ghana as a unique country which stood out in West Africa (based on its inter and intra religious cooperation), President Akufo-Addo said: “Ghana is home to every religious denomination; people pursue their religious practices without hindrance.”

He, therefore, urged all citizens to “guard this tradition of religious cooperation and tolerance jealously.”

He pointed out that if Islam was to live up to its accolade as a religion of peace, it behoved all Muslims to embrace one another irrespective of differences in doctrine.

“The price of liberty is internal vigilance and so I urge all of you to be on the lookout for troublemakers and hate preachers among us. The security agencies are ready to deal with those who incite hate, even if they do so in the name of Islam or Christianity,” the President added.