Activists fault Senate’s resolution on underage marriage

The senate on Wednesday passed a proposal claiming that a woman is deemed to be “full of age” once she is married irrespective of the age she did so.
A cross section of activists on Wednesday faulted the Senate’s resolution to alter Section 29 (a) of the proposed constitutional amendment stipulating that a woman shall qualify for marriage only when she attains 18 years.
The Senate, however, deleted age specification for women who were once married, claiming that a woman is deemed to be “full of age” once she is married irrespective of the age she did so.
The resolution was made by lawmakers on Tuesday after a vote on recommendations of the Senate Committee on the Review of the Nigerian Constitution.
The Executive Director of PROJECT ALERT on Violence Against Women, Josephine Effa-Chukwuma, described the resolution as a selfish one.
She said that (the resolution) would contradict the Child Rights Act which stipulated that “a child is anyone below the age of 18″.
“That is very reckless of them and insensitive of them to the plight of young girls, especially in this time and era of child sexual abuse; the implications and complications that come up from early marriage which we all know; VVF, RVF and all that.
“So, if they go to the constitution to remove the age restriction that says one cannot marry a teen, then, they might as well throw the Childs rights acts out of the window.
“The Childs Rights Acts says clearly that a child is any one below the age of 18; or are they oblivious to it , it is completely
unacceptable,” she said.
Also reacting, Abiola Afolabi-Akiode, the Coordinator, Gender and Constitution Reform Network, (GECORN), described the lawmaker’s resolution as a big setback on the Nigerian people not only the women.
“It contradicted Section 21 of the Childs Rights Acts which says no persons under the age of 18 is capable of contracting a marriage; and any marriage that is contracted by a minor is null and void and has no effect whatsoever.
“The constitution is supreme, so the Childs Rights Acts falls under the constitution; So, what the man has done is to set back all the gains of the struggle of the Nigerian women.
“So this kind of law will just legalise the abuse of children in the country and that is why people were clamouring for the deletion of that section 39(4) and which the senate originally moved towards, so how the table now turned against the children of Nigeria is what we don’t understand,” she said.
On her part, the National Public Relations Officer of the KOWA Party, Oluremi Sonaiya, expressed the hope that the resolution was not a way of making people escape with molesting children.
“I hope that this is not a way of making people get away with molesting children; people who will have like they say canal knowledge of children or who will force children into marriage at a tender age, this is like giving them a loophole.
Joining in the assault are members of the Nigerian Feminist Forum, whose spokesperson, Gerdyn Ezeakile, issued an angry statement in Lagos saying:

“This action is a clear violation of Article 21(2) of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child which prohibits child marriage and betrothal as well as Article 6 (b) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa which provides that the minimum age of marriage for women is 18 years.A cross section of activists on Wednesday faulted the Senate’s resolution to alter Section 29 (a) of the proposed constitutional amendment stipulating that a woman shall qualify for marriage only when she attains 18 years.

The resolution was made by lawmakers on Tuesday after a vote on recommendations of the Senate Committee on the Review of the Nigerian Constitution.
However, Rev. Austin Nnorom, the Lagos State Chairman of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), urged the lawmakers to cancel the resolution.
“It is worrisome and I think it’s a very unhealthy thing by the National Assembly; we pray that they should immediately repeal that law.
“We are looking for local government autonomy and better laws not a law that will allow children, under aged to be sexually abused, and it’s going to cause a lot of social vices in this part of the country.’’