'How senators were blackmailed into voting for child marriage'

According to Tribune, Just a day after the Senate explained that it did not endorse an early marriage law, it offered a different position Wednesday.
The Senate admitted Wednesday that members actually voted on the issue and those in support of the early marriage law won the day. The upper legislative chamber's Deputy President and Chairman of its Committee on Constitution Amendment, Ike Ekweremadu, on Tuesday defended senators against the allegation that they approved an early marriage law. He said that they only voted on the renunciation of citizenship.

But Senate President David Mark Wednesday owned up to the fact that lawmakers were blackmailed into reversing their stand to delete the controversial Section 29 (4) (b) of the 1999 Constitution. Mark, who made the confession when a civil society group under the umbrella of Gender and Constitution Reform Network (GECORN), led by the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Zainab Maina, visited him, said the Senate would have no reason not to revisit the issue. Pleading for the understanding of Nigerians, he said his colleagues took the step in that direction in the interest of the people. "That is the fact. Because it is in the open, I cannot hide it and nobody could hide it.

They were simply blackmailed, and on that day, if they didn't do what they did, nobody knows what the outcome would be or how the consequences will be today, because the people outside can say this man, you are a 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", Mark said. According to him, the Senate is on the side of the people as far as the afore-said section of the constitution is concerned.  He said that lawmakers were the first to observe the anomaly in the clause and moved to delete it but unfortunately, they failed narrowly to achieve that. He went on: "We are on the side of the people; that was why we put it that we should delete it.

That was what the people wanted.  We, in fact, are the first people that put the step in the right direction of deleting it. 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, 85 voted and about six or so abstained. There was hardly any dissenting votes but it got mixed up with so many other issues and it didn't get the required 73 votes anymore.

"So, first of all, I think the castigation outside is done out of misunderstanding but 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 must as possible not to bring issues that involve 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. "The good of the country is for everybody and not for a particular religious sect. I think the bottomline is, when people get more educated, then we can probably, if the Senate agrees, go back and see whether we can get the required number once more, because that is the solution.  Let me also talk to my own brothers and sisters who are senators, who were probably blackmailed.

"Why we voted publicly was so that everybody will know the stand of every senator on every issue. I think the problem is not whether we can delete this Section 29(4) (b) or not. That is not the issue; it is whether we can get the number to be able to delete it. With all due respect, the entire Senate is being castigated because there was and there is still a complete misunderstanding of what the Senate had tried to do." Earlier in a presentation read by Saadatu Mahdi, the women called for outright removal of the section, which they said, indirectly provides that young Nigerian girls who are not old enough to vote or to obtain a driver's licence could be old enough to renounce their citizenship.  "It is generally accepted that there is an age where mental capacity is presumed and as such, to provide a basis where girls without this mental capacity can renounce their citizenship not only unfairly discriminates against females but also trivialises this treasure gift," they said.

The group maintained that there should be no basis for compelling a girl to deal with matters of such importance as the renunciation of citizenship merely because she is married. "Citizenship is and must remain gender-neutral and safeguarded from any cultural, religious or social interpretations or connotations. 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", it said. The Senate has been under severe criticisms since last week over its vote on Section 29 (4) (b). The public viewed the Senate's inability to delete that section of the constitution as an attempt to legalise early marriage.

Yesterday, the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Alfred Adewale Martins, called on the lawmakers to quickly rescind their decision and respect the wishes of the people. According to a statement by the Director of Social Communications, Very Rev. Msgr. Gabriel Osu, any attempt by the Senate to hold on to its position would mean giving consent to an obnoxious provision that found its way into a military-engineered constitution which deprives many a girl-child the right to grow into healthy and productive adults.

"The argument that their decision is not about child marriage flies in the face of reason because if they agree to define adulthood by marriage they automatically approve the action of the lecherous old man who marries a 13-year-old girl and make her an adult when by the same constitution, she cannot vote in an election. Such children are denied their childhood and made victims of vesico-vaginal fistula because their bodies are not ready to carry or nurture babies.

Pregnancy and motherhood are not conferred by obnoxious laws but nature prepares the woman for them," he said. "Our children deserve to have access to qualitative education and opportunity for self-actualisation. Unless the Senate rescinds its resolution, it would have failed woefully in protecting our children and giving them the opportunity to realize their potential to the fullest.

The Senate should be passing resolutions to the effect that all children below 18 years of age should be in school rather than legitimize child abuse and all sorts of health complications that arise from child marriage through this ridiculous resolution."

According to him, by consenting to child marriage in this way, the Senate has bruised the sensibilities of decent people across the nation and all religious divides who have condemned this resolution. He urged the Senate to expunge Section 29 (4b) as it not only amounts to truncating the future of children, it also contradicts other parts of the same constitution. Meanwhile, the Senate yesterday shifted ground on its initial plan to pass the amended 2013 appropriation bill till today to allow members study the input of the Committee on Appropriation.

Following the successful reading of the bill on Tuesday, it was referred to the relevant committee, which was mandated to return it within 24 hours for the clause-to-clause consideration and accelerated passage. However, the Senate yesterday postponed the consideration and passage till today to allow members go through the document. The upper chamber had earlier vowed not to consider the budget due to some differences with the Presidency on some areas of the proposed amendments.