Hajia Hajara Mohammed, a Commissioner at the National Commission on Civic Education, has appealed to Ghanaians to return to the core family values and functions of care and support to solve societal problems.

She said society now was overwhelmed with so many social vices because of the breakdown of the traditional family values needed to support leaders to make the country better for all.

The family, she said, had lost some of its functions or roles, performed in the past, but despite its structural and functional changes, the family still holds a unique position among the innumerable institutions, in nation building.

She made the observation at the 14th annual Greater Accra regional conference of the Ghana Muslim Mission (GMM), in Accra, on the theme: “The Importance of the Family to National Development.”

She said the family constitutes a group of people united by marriage, blood or adoption consisting of stable households interacting and communicating with each other in their social roles, all in the quest to create a common culture.

Hajia Mohammed said the family could be seen as an agent of socialisation and orientation because it is the first school of citizenship of every individual.

“This is where the younger generation are nurtured and natured, given protection, care, moulding and training,” she said.

She said the family was very crucial at this stage in the quest for self-determination as a country.

“There cannot be development in a nation without a society, and there cannot be a society without a family. It is the microcosm of every society, and the importance of the family cannot be over emphasized,” Hajia Mohammed.

She however noted that, historically, the family had been transformed from a more or less self-sufficient group into a definite and small group of minimum size.

The small independent nuclear family had replaced the big consanguine family in Western advanced societies particularly in urban areas.

“Many of the traditional functions of the family have been taken away by special agencies in modern times. Many family duties, which were discharged formerly by the parents have now been transferred to external agencies.

“The educational, religious, recreational and protective functions have been more or less taken over by schools, churches, Government and commercial recreational agencies.”

She said “we live in an era where nature, function and structure of the family, have been thrown into question, the family for Islam is a divinely inspired institution with marriage at its core, and whatever socialisation and orientation given to the young ones this has to be core.”

“In Islam it is imperative that Muslims do not throw away the extended family and it is important these values are inculcated into the younger ones for them to value them,” she added.

She said the family was an important nucleus in national development without, which every state would struggle in its quest for nation-building and national determination.

“If we would go back to our core family values and function of care and support, and instilling discipline and order in the youth, most of the problems we have in society now will not exist.

We will lend a helping hand to our leaders to be able to make the county a better one, for as a family we are to form the nucleus of the society and play complementary roles to aid the government in national development.”

Mr Solomon Nii Okai, Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the GMM, said the theme for the occasion was purposely chosen to see how best as Muslims they could help shape and bring back the old family values in society.

He said few years ago the family consisted of everyone within a community, irrespective of religion, tribe, or colour, but now that was not the case because most people now live independent lives.

This, he said, has deprived communities of the great African values of correcting children when they go wrong, whether or not they are a part of a particular family.

Nii Okai said these had led to the rise of many social vices that was hindering societal development.

The GMM was founded in 1957 as a religious organisation to foster peace and unity among Muslims and other religions in Ghana, to formulate and pursue policies and programmes to propagate the true teachings of Islam to Muslims and Non-Muslims, and mobilise resources for the establishment of both Islamic and secular educational institutions at all levels.