I met one young girl recently. She scored A1 for all subjects except English (B3) in the 2019 WASSCE Private exams.
She lost her father while still in secondary school and her mother is all she’s got now. Her mother is probably among the 400,000 women some Ghanaian journalists consider as looking for husbands–that’s the only extrapolation their mediocre minds could make out of the census data saying that there are 400,000 more women than men in Ghana.
Data shows that men die earlier than women. A lot of these women are probably widows and their lives can be hell if family and friends do not come to their aid. The family most of the time does not help. A few friends might. Hard luck. Husbands, take better care of yourself. Cultivate healthy habits. Give yourself what nature did not give you. We are leaving too many widows behind.
That’s why we need a better society. That’s why we need better institutions. We need social safety nets for widows, widowers with lots of children to cater for, orphans and the less privileged.
She is not single and searching, by the way. Just looking for financial support. She just finished the first year of her six/seven year degree program.
Let’s do this.
Stan Dugah
StantheStoryTeller
28/09/2021
