Ruth Osime |
Stella Damasus |
Pastor Tunde Bakare |
Zainab Maina |
Femi Fani-Kayode |
David Mark |
Few weeks ago, the Nigerian
Senate attempted to amend Section 29(a) of the constitution, which states that
a married underage girl is deemed to be "an adult".
However, former Zamfara State governor,
who attracted controversy with the introduction of Sharia Law in the state
then, Senator Ahmed Sanni Yerima of Zamfara opposed the amendment.
He claimed that the amendment is against
Islamic Law and that any lady that is married should be considered as a woman
regardless of the age.
Following the insistence of Yerima, Mark
agreed to revisit the issue, and said "once more, because of the serious
nature of the laws we make, and because we want our actions to stand the test
of time, we will revisit the issue raised by Yerima".
This started a controversy among
the public and activists as well as critics hit back at the pedophiles.
Former Aviation minister, Chief
Femi Fani-Kayode in an article published on August 4, 2013 in the Thisday
Newspaper titled "A word for Yerima and the pedophiles" clearly
expressed his disapproval of the issue. He pointed out that two female senators
refused to show up during the sitting, adding that "how does one explain
the fact that two female senators; Aisha Jummai Alhassan from Taraba State and
Zainab Kure from Niger State both of whom I gather have daughters, actually
abstained when that historical vote took place."
Senate President, David Mark also
admitted that the entire senate had succumbed to Yerima's "blackmail"
on the issue of the right of the child bride, while his Deputy; Senator Ike
Ekweremadu accepted the fact that the matter needed to be revisited in view of
the outrage expressed by the majority of the Nigerian people.
In the concluding part of Femi's article, he
mentioned that in Yerima's own Northern region, not less than 93% of the girls
do not complete secondary school education and 70 % of women between ages 20
and 29 cannot read or write. “Worst still, the region has the largest
percentage and number of Vesico Vagina Fistula (VVF) cases in the entire world
according to our Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Zainab
Maina, Nigeria has 800,000 cases of VVF today and we are adding 20,000 cases
each year,” he said.
On her part, a popular Nollywood
actress, Stella Damasus Aboderin, released a video few weeks ago on Youtube
expressing how disappointed she was on the issue. She went on to say, “no one
should make this an Islamic issue, they should not take us all for fools. Now,
I have absolutely nothing against Islam, in fact I am a strong believer that
every Nigerian has the liberty to practice whatever religion they like freely,
but this shameless senators should not make Nigeria a Sharia state. Nigeria is
not an Islamic country; do not impose the evil desires of your hearts on an
entire nation using religion as a cover. There are no distinctions between
child marriage and child slavery. If anything, child marriage is worse, how can
you subject a 13 year old child to that kind of life, a child who is yet to
figure her bearing in life, a child with hopes and dreams, a child that has a
right to freedom, a right to education, has Nigeria suddenly run out of mature
girls, who are fully developed and ripe enough for marriage? That our shameless
set of senators will actually result to craddle snatching? Are there no women
in the senate?” The man of God in charge of Latter Rain Assembly, Lagos
Pastor
Tunde Bakare recently delivered a powerful and explosive sermon titled;
"Nigeria is suffering from the leadership of PINPS" (Pedophiles in
Power). The issue of child marriage has divided our country more than any other
issue before it in our entire history."
Editor of Thisday Style, Ruth
Osime poured out her mind in an article. She described the situation as a
"belly churning madness." She said, "there is no such thing as
over-flogging the matter, it is a dastardly act and VVF is a disease child
bride suffers as a result of the sexual abuse from their husband rather than
playing with "barbie dolls.”
Femi Omotesho, a columnist and
writer also wrote a piece about the issue and titled it "Beasts of my
nation." She said; "While my so called National Leaders were in their
wacky imaginations, thinking about how the female gender could be more repressed
and debased, other countries from the Middle East and North Africa are exposing
their young females to activities that will encourage innovation and promote
the spread of new technologies to give women and girls the support that they
need to become leaders in this field."
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