Child Marriage: David Mark Says Some Senators Were Blackmailed
Senate President David Mark, on Wednesday in Abuja, said that some senators were blackmailed into voting that section 29 (4) (b) be retained in the 1999 Constitution.
Mark
said this when he received different women groups under the aegis of
Gender and Constitution Reform Network (GECORN), a Non-Governmental
Organisation (NGO) who visited him.
Some
of the women groups consist of former Ministers of Education, Obiageli
Ezekwesili, Josephine Anenih and Justice Mariam Uwais.
“They
were simply blackmailed and on that day, if they didn’t do what they
did, nobody knows the outcome or what the consequences will be today,”
he said. “The people outside can say this man, you are a Muslim and you
didn’t vote for something that is of Islamic interest.”
Mark
said that it was the desire of the Senate to remove the clause since
out of the 101 senators who voted
the first time, 85 voted that it
should be removed.
“There
was hardly any dissenting vote the first time but once it got mixed up
with so many other issues, it didn’t get the required 73 votes anymore,”
he said.
He said that the castigation of the Senate by Nigerians was largely due to misunderstanding.
Mark
reiterated that the Senate was on the side of the people and that was
why the Constitution Review Committee had recommended the deletion of
that clause since it was discriminatory against women.
We,
in fact, were the first people that took the step in the right
direction of deleting it,” he said. “It didn’t go through because of
other tangential, total inconsequential and unconnected issues that were
brought in on the floor of the senate.”
He
promised that the Senate would try to re-visit the issue with the aim
of deleting the clause from the constitution and stressed the need for
Nigerians to get more education on the issue.
Presenting
the position of the women, Saadatu Mahadi, the Secretary-General, Women
Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA), said that
citizenship must remain gender neutral.
“To
protect this sacred gift of citizenship, we advocate for the deletion
of Section 29 (4) (b) of the 1999 Constitution,” she said. “It is the
desire of all Nigerians who treasure our citizenship to remove this
provision that provides that young Nigerian girls who are not old enough
to vote can renounce their citizenship.”
Mahadi
said that contrary to the argument given for retaining that clause,
that once a girl was married, she automatically assumed full mental
capacity and there was no unanimity among Islamic jurist under Sharia.
“Consequently,
we posit that there should be no basis to compel a girl to deal with
matters of such gravity as renunciation of citizenship merely because
she is married,” she said.
The Minister of Women Affairs, expressed optimism that the Senate would revisit the issue in the interest of Nigerians.
The
Senate, on July 16, failed to secure the needed majority votes to amend
section 29 (4) (b) of the 1999 Constitution which states that “any
woman who is married shall be deemed to be of full age.”
This
was greeted by wide criticisms from several individuals and groups
across the country, accusing the federal lawmakers oZainab Mainaf
approving underage marriage. READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/41263.html
