Theresa Okafor

(Individual Pre-Summit paper presentations can be viewed on the conference homepage www.fach-ng.org)

It is a pleasure to be able to express the sincere thankfulness that Foundation for African Cultural Heritage (FACH) wishes to extend to all those who decided to brave it and attend the June 2009 pre-summit in Nigeria. FACH was very pleased to have a broad range of over 300 speakers and participants from all over the world including Cameroun, Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo, The Philippines, The Netherlands and the United States of America.  Evidently, there is interest in working at a global level to solve the challenges facing pro-family and pro-life adherents.  Their presence helped to maximize the successes of a pre-summit – the first ever in Africa! This congress which has provided an opportunity for dialogue among civilizations will inevitably pave the way for a mutually benefitting relationship with concurring organizations both home and abroad.

The World Congress for Family’s directives that Africa hosts a pre-summit was clearly necessary as many Africans witness a lavish of millions of dollars spent to reduce population which has not yielded any real economic progress. Abortion, Contraception, Lower fertility rates have been population goals masked by euphemistic languages such as family planning and reproductive health. Yet many Africans fail to see a correlation between population and poverty as they observe countries such as Japan, South Korea, Netherlands and in fact India with high population densities getting wealthier by the day. It is also ironic that the West  who brought Christianity to Africa; stopped the killing of twins; impeded many crude pagan practices; proclaims respect for life has turn around to insidiously divide and impoverish the family in Africa through a systematic discrimination towards the natural family, pro-life and pro-family values. 

What seems a paradox to many Africans is that many parts of the West, now facing economic crises because of population decline are bent on promoting smaller families in Africa. This phenomenon was  captured as ‘Fatal Misconception’ by a Columbian University historian, Matthew Connelly (2008) in his book Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population.  Connelly remarked:

The great tragedy of overpopulation control, the fatal misconception was to think that one could know other people’s interest better than they knew it themselves. The essence of population control, whether it targeted migrants, ‘the unfit’ or families that seemed either big or too small was to make rules for people without having to answer to them. It appealed to people with power because with the spread of emancipator movements, it began to appear easier and more profitable to control population than to control territory. That is why opponents were essentially correct in viewing it as another chapter in the unfinished business of imperialism

Another fatal misconception is driving Africans to believe that accepting certain modes of prevention for HIV/AIDS is undesirable thus no mention is made of sexual responsibility and behavior change while condom use is hyped.  Uganda provides an illustrative example of the central role of faith communities among others in bringing about behavior change. Other countries that have seen a decline in HIV/AIDs aside from Uganda now include Kenya, Haiti, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Cambodia.

FACH hereby reports that in contrast to the widespread disagreement over abortion, the definition of the family, euthanasia and such like, there is a broad social and legal consensus in Africa regarding the affirmation and protection of life from the moment of conception till natural death. At the root of people’s social, economic and political mishaps in Africa and indeed the rest of the world lies a stark neglect or rejection of real ethical, spiritual and fundamental values.

Given the hostility to the unborn in many world economies, Africans regard every child as a blessing. Amidst biting poverty, the birth of a child is often celebrated with pomp and pageantry. Children are treasures in Africa and the average African child looks on to the family as where he discovers the past, where traditions are handed on and where the collective memory is forged. The failures of some governments in Africa positions the traditional family – made of husband, wife, off-springs and members of the extended family - as indisputably, the social safety-net for socialization process and shaping of values of the child. Families in Africa are the building blocks of future world civilization.

The dialogue during the pre-summit was there to reiterate these main objectives:  

• Family /population is not an obstacle to development

• The need to inculcate family values to upcoming generation

• Promote family health by improved nutrition basic health care to pregnant women and children

• Show HIV and STI prevention models based on proven behavioural change

• Defend family and guide policy and cultural norms that promote family autonomy and the vital role it plays in society

The Congress called on Government at all levels to:

• Uphold constitutions of African countries which guarantee right to life and dignity of the human person

• Protect and promote the family and the African heritage as enshrined in Chapter II of the Fundamental Objectives and Directives of State Policy sections of most Constitutions in Africa

• Defend natural family which is defined by marriage, including extended family members, procreation and adoption

• Promote stable natural families that welcome children which are necessary for a healthy society

• Be aware of re-interpretation and mis-application of human rights common in United Nations documents and propagated by some international anti-family NGOs

• Specifically re-define reproductive health services to exclude abortion and other anti-life practices as well as equip the hospitals and maternities in urban and rural areas in Africa so as to tackle the increasing maternal and neo-natal deaths in Africa.

• Prioritize people-centred and family-centred legislature

The Congress called on National and State Assemblies to :

• Legislate laws that will protect and uphold positive traditional African family

• Encourage and support mothers in their essential roles in caring for their children and to recognize the vital role of child rearing

• Project the family in public policy as a fundamental and inalienable social good

• Exercise its oversight in the strict monitor of the health budget and the national health sector reforms

• Stress the up-bringing of children as the fundamental right of parents to protect , to protect young people against demoralization and to promote economic solutions that provide dignified living conditions to all families.

• Advocate family values at all levels by legislating laws against pornography, homosexuality etc,

The Congress called on Civil Society to:

Equip and mobilize fathers and mothers to play their parental roles in upbringing  of their children in a conscious manner

Support proper child upbringing by both parents and to ensure the curricula used in schools conform with the moral and religious upbringing of the child.

Create awareness on the richness of the traditional African family values which need to be imbibed by people from other cultures

The Congress called on Nigerian citizens to:

• Play their roles in upholding positive family values such as love and respect for life at all stages, love, respect for elders, work, freedom, truth, love, responsibility etc.

• Strengthen the natural family and the African extended family systems which is being impacted negatively upon by the change from Modernism to Materialism

• Guard against the negative effects of the modern technologies e.g. internet which if controlled has harmful effects on children

The Congress also called on

• Religious and traditional rulers to be actively involved in addressing matters affecting the family in their Communities

• The Media to draw attention to high rates of divorce and dysfunctional  families and give visibility to ways of promoting and maintaining positive family values.

The Congress also called on all Employers of Labour (Government and Corporate Bodies) to:

• Foster  family responsible policies that will make it possible for employees to have time to play their natural roles as parents

• Legislate against some policies that are anti-family and ensure that sure legislatures are enforced.

FACH’s next steps are to

1. Design and sponsor a pro-family bill at its National Assemblies.

2. Organize Nation-wide seminars to disseminate discussions at the pre-summit.

3. Sponsor regular television programme on the family.

4. Produce a character education curriculum for schools that would replace the current sexuality education curriculum that is contraceptives - bound.

Thank you for your attention.