yesterday, said proponents of Section 29
(4)(b) in the constitution hid under
religious guise to get the section sail
through during last week's clause-by-
clause voting in the on-going constitution
amendment process.
He said it was time Nigerians shunned
religion when dealing with sensitive issues
if the country must forge ahead.
Already, the Christian Association of
Nigerian, CAN, has concluded plans to
mobilize Nigerians to protest the non-
amendment of provisions of the
Constitution, just as the Paediatric
Association of Nigeria, PAN, has called for
immediate reinstatement of the age of
marriage to 18 years.
Religious sentiment
Mark, who said but for religious
sentiment that was injected into the
voting period, the section in question
which tends to give support to underage
marriage, would have been completely
deleted from the nation's constitution.
He regretted that rather than being
praised, the upper legislative chamber
was being vilified over its bold attempt to
have the controversial clause removed
from the country's law book.
Speaking yesterday, while hosting the
leadership of some women groups, under
the aegis of Gender and Constitution
Reform Network, GECORN, which stormed
the National Assembly in protest over the
controversial section, the Senate
President lamented non-appreciation of
the Senate for attempting to delete the
said portion which he noted had been in
the Nigerian Constitution since 1979.
"The good of the country is for everybody
and not for a particular religious sect. Let
me also talk to my own brothers and
sisters who are senators, who were
probably blackmailed. That is the fact,
because it is in the open that I cannot
also hide it and nobody can hide it. They
were simply blackmailed, and on that day,
if they didn't do what they did, nobody
knows the outcome or how the
consequences will be today, because the
people outside can say this man, you are
Muslim and didn't vote for something
that is of Islamic interest, because if we
don't hit the nail squarely on the head,
we may never get it right," he insisted.
Even as he regretted that the Red
Chamber could not secure the 73 votes
required to delete it, he, nonetheless,
assured that it was not yet over with the
controversial clause, saying in no time,
the Senate would revisit the issue with a
view to getting it expunged from the
constitution.
Mark stated: "It didn't go through
because of other tangential issues that
were brought in on the floor of the
Senate, total inconsequential issues,
unconnected issues that were brought in.
We wanted to remove it but it failed, we
were a total of 101 and 85 voted and I
think about six or so abstained. There
was hardly any dissenting votes but once
it got mixed up with so many other
issues, it didn't get the required 73 votes
anymore".
Noting that the public was castigating the
Senate over the issue based on ignorance,
he said: "So, first of all, I think the
castigation outside is done out of
misunderstanding. Because a religious
connotation was brought into it, which is a
very sensitive issue and you must agree
with me that in this country, we try as
much as possible not to bring issues that
involves faith to the floor of the Senate
and indeed the chamber, we keep religion
completely out of it because what is good
for a Christian is also good for a Muslim.
Earlier, leader of the spokesperson of the
group and Executive Secretary of
Women's Right Advancement and
Protection Alternative, WRAPA, Mrs.
Saudautu Shehu Mahdi, said they were in
the Senate not only to register their
displeasure over last Tuesday's Senate's
voting supporting the retention of Section
29 (4)(b), but to call on the National
Assembly, as a whole to revisit the issue
with a view to deleting it completely from
the constitution.
Sandwiched between Minister of Women
Affairs and Social Development, Hajia
Zainab Maina, and the former Minister of
Education, Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili, Mrs
Mahdi said "citizenship is and must
remain gender-neutral and safeguarded
from any cultural, religious or social
interpretations or connotations". She
added: "The harm of maintaining Section
29(4)(b),which is open to manipulation
arising from its ambiguity, far outweighs
any arguable benefits a few females might
arguably obtain".
CAN plans national protest
Meanwhile, attempts by the Senate to
placate Nigerians notwithstanding, the
Christian Association of Nigerian, CAN, is
planning to call out Nigerians to protest
the non-amendment of the controversial
provisions of Section 29 (4b) of the 1999
Constitution, just as the Catholic
Archbishop of Lagos describes the
endorsement of child marriage as
inhuman.
National President, CAN, Pastor Ayo
Oritsejafor, who spoke to Vanguard in
Lagos before he jetted out of the country,
described the Senate's endorsement of
child marriage as a shame, adding "the
only solution is for Nigerians to cry out."
He wondered whether Nigerians had
been too brutalized "that we have no
voice anymore to cry out, because it's like
we are so used to wrong things that
everybody just accepts it when it comes.
So is this the way we are going to accept
this again? I hope not, honestly. It's a
great disappointment. It's totally against
normal human justice. Children don't
know anything; they can't fight for
themselves. So we'll fight for them. If the
National Assembly of a country can vote
for adults to sleep with children, your
own children; it just reflects and shows
the condition of the nation.
"If it is true that the Senate first voted to
say that only girls above 18 should be
married; and then that vote was turned
down by Mr. Yerima, and that was
overturned; and later they now voted
that even children should be married…if it
is true, I think it is one of the greatest
shames of the century for Nigeria as a
nation. Not just the National Assembly
because the National Assembly is a
reflection of Nigeria; it is a shame. It's a
disgrace. I feel ashamed to call myself a
Nigerian. There are places I will go into
right now and I don't know what I'm
going to do, especially those of us that
travel around the world."
Also speaking through the Director of
Social Communications, Very Rev. Msgr.
Gabriel Osu, the Catholic Archbishop of
Lagos, Archbishop Alfred Adewale
Martins, called on the law makers to
quickly rethink and rescind their decision
and show some respect for the wishes of
the people. He said: "Failure to do this
would lend credence to the popular belief
that their junketing around the nation
under the guise of receiving grassroots
opinion on constitutional amendment was
another ruse for wasting time and the
nation's resources."
Archbishop Martins added that any
attempt by the Senate to hold on to its
present position would mean giving
consent to an obnoxious provision that
found its way into a military-engineered
constitution which deprive many a girl-
child the right to grow into healthy and
productive adults. Retaining that
provision of the 1999 constitution would
amount to endorsing a provision that robs
children of their childhood.
Leave marriage age at 18, PAN pleads
In a related development, the Paediatric
Association of Nigeria, PAN, has called for
called for immediate reinstatement of the
age of marriage at 18 years in the
country.
Expressing shock over the retention of
the controversial Section 29 (4b) of the
1999 Constitution, in the new Federal
constitution proposal, to the effect that
the age of marriage which has been
traditionally put at 18 years has been
expunged, PAN National President,
Professor Adebiyi Olowu and the National
Secretary, Dr. Jerome Elusiyan, argued
that the according to the United Nations
convention to which Nigeria is a signatory,
18 years remained the age of maturity.
"It is no surprise that the age of 18 years
is also the age that adulthood begins and
the age at which an individual is allowed
to vote, drive and own bank account
among others," the duo noted in a signed
statement..
PAN stated: "Our Association takes this
as an abuse of the right of the child to
which our country Nigeria is a signatory
and expresses its readiness to join forces
with well meaning Nigerians and other
interest groups to see to the
reinstatement of 18 years as the age of
marriage in Nigeria. This amendment in
the marriage act if allowed will make
Nigeria a laughing stock in the comity of
nations."
It warned that the medical consequences
of Girl Child Marriage which includes
development of Vesico-Vaginal
Fistula,VVF, low birth weight, birth
asphyxia among others should strongly be
a deterrent to this act that is universally
condemnable.
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