Int’l Day of Families: Obaseki seeks increased roles for family to sustain devt

The Governor of Edo State, Mr Governor Obaseki, has said that with the invaluable contributions of the family institution to human development and advancement, more roles should be assigned to the institution.

Obaseki made the case on the occasion of the International Day of families, celebrated on May 15, each year.

“As the basic unit of society, the family institution has continued to sustain the human race, socialising and preparing children for growth and development,” he said.

The governor added that despite socio-economic and other challenges such as wars and conflicts which disrupt the family system in parts of the world, the institution, “has fared well and deserves to be empowered to step out of its traditional roles and do more for society as development-focused governments seek ways of bringing governance closer to the people.”

Obaseki said that 2018 Theme: “Families and inclusive societies” dovetails with his administration’s strategy to achieve inclusive economic growth through transparent and people-oriented policies, and stressed that no sustainable development can be achieved without targeting the largest number of people, possible.

He maintained that family heads can be instrumental in mobilising households to embrace health programmes such as immunisation, basic education policies, environmental protection and preservation amongst others, in addition to the institution’s biological and moral transmission roles to successive generations.

The governor noted that his administration “is committed to multi-stakeholder development model and is disposed to integrating the family institution in policy making and execution to achieve a bottom-to-top ideas management framework.”

He called for legal and institutional support for the  institution from all tiers of government for the family to carry out its biological, social and developmental roles with ease.

According to him, “it makes sense and is cost-effective to empower and invest more resources to achieve more functional families, as against investing resources in managing the crisis associated with dysfunctional homes.”

The International Day of Families, according to the United Nations, “provides an opportunity to promote awareness of issues relating to families and to increase knowledge of the social, economic and demographic processes affecting them.”

The global body said “It has inspired a series of awareness-raising events, including national family days. In many countries, this day is an opportunity to highlight different areas of interest and importance to families.”