FOR as long as I can remember, delusion,
self-interest and greed have motivated not only the Nigerian government but the
Nigerian people who often respond to the calculating, preying actions of their
leaders not with outrage, but with the cunning of those who will profit by
supporting what we all know to be wrong.
However,
today I am proud of the outpouring of reactions following the passage of the
Senate’s Bill making the age of consent in Nigeria 13 (in most European
countries it is 16 and even in Spain, where it is still 13, activists, public
figures, fight tirelessly to have it raised).
Child
marriage has been legalised in Nigeria, everything our mothers and grand
mothers have fought for, to guarantee us a right to education, a right to
determine and decide for ourselves our path in life, has been swiftly
destroyed. One question remains: Where are the female members of the Senate?
Nigerian
women need to know they deserve better. When a female House of Representatives
member is interviewed, she is often happy to answer banal questions on her
favourite colour, the number of Chanel bags she owns, her favourite holiday
spot.
Even film
stars are more intellectually challenged by the media. Mothers, sisters,
daughters in every walk of life, we all need to recognise that we deserve
better, that we should be valued more than the amount we can fetch by being
sold at the altar, that we are more than our fashion choices, no matter how
elaborate, that we are more than the incredible pressure society puts on women
to seek existence and outright fulfilment in marriage.
Our lives
as women are worth something. It might seem like a moot point. But believe me
when I say that there are women, even powerful women in Nigeria and Africa
today, who need to realise this because they are the only ones who can truly
champion the rights of the girl-child. I ask the female members of both Houses
today, how many of their daughters marry at 13.
I ask the
wealthy, carefree politicians in Abuja today, how many have given away their
precious brood to men three or four times their age who would be free to use
them as they see fit. Most host lavish weddings which fill the society pages of
our magazines and the pictures tell an interesting story: one of political and business
marriages to secure benefits and further hoard economic opportunities by
concentrating them in the hands of the few at the expense of the many.
It is the
daughters of the poor and the uneducated that we expect to marry at 13 because
they have no voice and more so because their families are in desperate need of
money. So their innocence, their right to dream is butchered on the altar of
some of our lawmaker’s perversities, who seek out poor young girls and turn
them into playthings.
We hide
behind religion to excuse horrific deeds. Both Christians and Muslims are
guilty of this in the Nigeria of today. The legalisation of child brides will
open the road towards abusers marrying their victims and therefore being
excused. In fact, we are tacitly changing the very definition of rape or of any
kind of abuse in a society where the rights of women and children are already
so difficult to uphold.
On whose
side is our government? Whose will are our legislators serving? If their goal
is to tear this country apart then they are doing a fine job by giving Islam a
bad name. Christians, this is not Islam. Nor is it another attempt at the
islamisation of Nigeria, unlike what I have heard.
Nor is
this symptomatic of the North’s refusal to modernise or due to the unhealthy
influence of Boko Haram on Muslim communities. Simply put, it is yet another
example of government’s blatant attempt to legalise gluttony, self-indulgence
and covetousness under every and any form. It is right to steal pensions.
It is
right to treat those without a rich father or a Mercedes Benz like second class
citizens, to deny them a voice because they are unable to buy votes or pay for
the hard earned right to preach hate, divisive falsehoods and general
misunderstanding between ethnic groups and religious communities. It is right
and acceptable to rob children of their innocence.
Child
brides are not Muslim culture. Nor are they an inherent part of Hausa culture.
Rather, the perpetuation of this practice is based on debatable interpretations
of the Quran. History shows that sex with pre-pubescent girls pre-dates Islam
and can thus not be considered typical of Islamic belief. As such, we must
recognise, due to the availability of modern science and technology, the health
implications of children becoming pregnant, which your average Nigerian who
might be in favour of child marriages, might not fully understand.
Then, it
is the duty of the Senate to educate its constituents rather than to pass
controversial, misogynistic bills, which criminals will see as a path to the
legalisation of sexual slavery and paedophilia across the board. Our lawmakers
never seem to consider the possible unintended consequences of their actions.
Child trafficking, rape, the brutality many young girls face in Nigeria today, are
sore topics many would rather not address.
Every day
life in Nigeria devalues women. In offices, crude, extremely lewd jokes are
made about women who also laugh at them like it means nothing.
We suffer
unwanted advances, which are difficult to report. Female heads of human
resources tell interns it is their provocative dressing which attracts men and
that they must pray for guidance. So, to those Southerners who will see this as
an opportunity for more Northern bashing, look long and hard at yourselves.
Women in Nigeria are commodities, property. No more than cattle in fancy
clothing.
The Quran
condemns non-consensual marriages. How many of us believe that it is a 13-year-
old’s dream to be married to an old man? Men and women in Islam have equal
status before God. Ironically, in practice, men who are greedy for money and
power turn the writings upside down and excuse behaviour whose sole intent is
to keep women down.
I am a
Christian, a Southerner and many I am sure will say I don’t know or understand
Islam. One thing I do know is that I believe in one Nigeria and I feel akin to
every young girl up North (and who is to say it won’t happen down South now
that it is legal) who will be sold to an old man to settle debts or simply
given as a gift. Let us all remember the little girls we once were, picture our
daughters, our nieces, our sisters and our friends when we think of the
nameless, faceless young girls who are being robbed of their childhood.
I am
writing this because I want the world to know our Senate’s shame, especially
that of our female Senators, with their expensive salaries (let us remember
that the members of our upper and lower chambers earn more than the US
president), their diamonds and properties purchased with the blood and tears of
Nigerian children.
But we
the youth of Nigeria will never cease to believe in progress and progressive
religion. We will never cease to believe in one Nigeria, we are bigger than our
differences and stronger than our disagreements. We are a country destined for
greatness, inspite of our leaders who choose not to allow it. I am every
Nigerian the government chooses to sacrifice.
I am
every child who goes to bed hungry. I am every jobless graduate. I am every
young person who dies in a plane crash due to negligence. I am every person who
dies on our bad roads or in our poorly equipped hospitals. I am every Nigerian
who despite all this believes in change. It’s called the Audacity of Hope.
1) Any citizen of Nigeria of full age who wishes to renounce his Nigerian citizenship shall make a declaration in the prescribed manner for the renunciation.
(2) The President shall cause the declaration made under subsection (1) of this section to be registered and upon such registration, the person who made the declaration shall cease to be a citizen of Nigeria.
(3) The President may withhold the registration of any declaration made under subsection (1) of this section if-
(a) the declaration is made during any war in which Nigeria is physically involved; or
(b) in his opinion, it is otherwise contrary to public policy.
(4) For the purposes of subsection (1) of this section.
(a) “full age” means the age of eighteen years and above;
(b) any woman who is married shall be deemed to be of full age.
According to Senator Yerima, who moved the motion against normal protocol for a re-vote, a removal of this section violates the religious tenets of Islam. I am not aware of any Muslim scholar who has risen to speak up against him. In fact, some have even pointed out a section of the Koran which seems to suggest that a girl has come of age after her first menstrual flow.
This article is not aimed at arguing whether Islam propagates girl child marriage or not. I want to believe that as with the slavery system practised by the Jews, and endorsed in the Christian Bible, there must be a valid reason why the Koran makes this provision. I also want to believe that every religious provision has a tendency of being abused. For this reason, every civilized and modern society, which, despite diversity, has come together under a social contract, makes laws that are as free from religious bias as possible and makes provisions that will protect all citizens’ rights.
For example, we do know that The Nigerian Constitution does not outlaw traditional religion. I am also aware that traditional religion often involves human sacrifice. Would a traditional religious worshipper, if represented in the senate, then ask that a provision be made for human sacrifice? Have people not gone to prison for being found with human heads even though they are using it to further their religion? Does not the constitution guarantee a freedom to practice your religion?
Evil has often been perpetrated in the name of religion.
Ten years before the writers of the Nigerian constitution sneaked in this and other spurious elements into the 1999 Constitution, the United Nations adopted The Convention on the Rights of the Child. This document stipulated among other things the age at which a person ceases to be a child. The OAU Assembly of Heads of States and Governments adopted the African Union Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (CRCW) a year later. Nigeria signed and ratified both documents in 1991 and the year 2000. In 2003, we adopted the Child Right Act.
The CRA stipulates that no Nigeria child shall be subjected to physical, mental or emotional injury, abuse or neglect, maltreatment, torture, inhuman or degrading punishment, or attacks on their honor or reputation. Yet, each state in the Nigerian Federation needed to domesticate and adopt the Act. The Child Right Act 2003 makes it an offence punishable with up to five years imprisonment to marry an underage girl. Senator Yerima is walking around free causing “mayhem and foolishness” partly because his home state of Zamfara has not adopted the CRA.
Ordinarily, the National Assembly should have tabled the Child Right Acts before all State Assemblies before it was adopted in 2003. For some reason, they did not do that. And so it is even more challenging at this time to begin to get the various states to domesticate and adopt these laws, especially those states where the religious sentiments are highly unfavorable to the adoption of the law.
Nigeria practices a “federal system of government”, therefore, each state has to domesticate and adopt the CRA. Perhaps, the fact that only 16 of the 36 States in Nigeria have adopted the Child Right Acts should have been an indication that it would be difficult to achieve a two thirds majority in the Senate to delete the clause in Section 29 (4b). Less than two thirds of states in Nigeria have adopted the CRA.
Can this clause still be deleted? Yes. Protocol has been broken once; we have a precedent that it can be broken again.
The more important question is: will it happen under the present senate? The answer? I do not know. 35 senators said it should not be deleted, 14 abstained. So even though a majority of the senate does agree that this clause should be struck out, this majority cannot carry the vote.
Can the people get about 7 of the senators abstained to change their minds and support this cause? We need at least 86 of the members of the National Assembly to vote in favour of a deletion.
This Fact that a senator from Edo and another from Ondo voted against this clause being removed is instructive. Perhaps, we, the people, have not come to understand how important the legislative arm of government is. If we did, we would be more alert to the credentials of the people that are in the senate and what they spend their time doing there.
The senators can vote as they please, perhaps because, they do not feel accountable to the people. Or perhaps, they are speaking for their people who they have kept poor and uneducated so that they can no longer find their voice. The problem is systemic.
More importantly, this debate has brought to the fore once more the need for a constitutional review. For example, Section 3(l)(e) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1970 makes a marriage void where either of the parties is not of ‘marriageable age’. But nowhere in the statute is the term ‘marriageable age’ defined. This has led people to recourse to the common rule. Thus, Marital Act 1949 which states that “marriageable age is fourteen years in the case of a boy and twelve years for a girl.
Now, more than ever, it is necessary that legal luminaries sit and sieve through the Nigerian Constitution and point out all inconsistencies and ludicrousness therein so that when the next assembly begins seating, we would have found work for their highly overpaid idle hands.
