Most marriages especially Christain marriages pass through counseling sessions for either three or six months before marriage.
During these sessions, marriage counselors provide the needed information based on biblical teachings and life experience to the prospective partners.
Some of these marriages end up in divorce and the question some have been asking is that should counselors be blamed for the divorce rate?
Pastor and Marriage Counsellor with the Forever Together Ministries and fellowships with the Holy Hill Chapel Assemblies of God, Madam Elizabeth Ephraim has provided an answer to the question.
In a PrimeNews interview, Madam Elizabeth Ephraim highlighted the role of counselors in preparing married couples.
She stated that counselors are supposed to present the facts about marriage to the couple and also assess the compatibility and readiness for marriage.
She said marriage counselors are not expected to force any decision on the partners but rather guide them, according to her, in a situation where any counselor forced a decision on the partners he or she can then be blamed if the marriage did not go well.
But she said counselors can only be responsible for the small position of the blame because sometimes partners do not present their true selves during the session which is not healthy and leads to divorce in some cases.
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A total of 79 customary marriages were dissolved at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) in 2021, according to data from the Assembly.
The Assembly, in 2021, registered a total of 345 customary marriages, 79 of, which were dissolved, indicating that, one out of four of the marriages registered collapsed.
They were engagements and Islamic marriages. Common causes of the collapse of the marriages were infidelity, ill-treatment, and child non maintenance.
Mr Gilbert Nii Ankrah, Head of Public Affairs, AMA, told the Ghana News Agency, in an interview on Monday that, the divorce figures for 2020 were lower as compared to that of 2021.
“In 2020, because of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Assembly did not record any significant numbers, but all I can say is that the numbers increased in 2021 as compared to that of 2020,” he said.
Mr Ankrah said in 2021, out of a total of 5403 ordinance marriages registered, only 1776 were conducted by the Assembly.
On the issue of divorce, Mr Ankrah explained that because ordinance marriage had to do with the court and was legally inclined, the Assembly did not have the power to get involved in the dissolution process of those marriages.
“The divorce processes of those marriages are strictly restricted to the court.”
He urged the public to go through the right procedures to register any form of marriage with the Assembly to avoid disappointments.
Though marriages could be registered with other Assemblies, the AMA, he said, had “a unique brand”, and that marriages registered and conducted with the Assembly “have some form of authority.”
Mr Ankrah said: “With the ordinance marriage after the marriage is registered with the Assembly, the information is published for a period of 21 days to allow for any objects or otherwise after, which the marriage can either be conducted by the Assembly or any church certified to do so.”