The
much-awaited voting on recommendations of the Senate Committee on the Review of
the Constitution took place yesterday. And our dear Senate has okayed marriage
for girls as young as 10. Or even younger. As long as your parents are willing
to give you away.
According
to ThisDay, yesterday, the Senate resolved to alter the part in our
constitution that stipulates that a woman shall not be qualified for marriage
until she attains the 18 years.
And this
they did after Senator Ahmad Sani (Zamfara West), raised an alarm that stating
a certain age for women before getting married, was against the Islamic law.
Remember that in 2009, Senator Sani had married a 13-year-old Egyptian in
violation of the constitutional provision. His act had sparked an international
outrage, to which Senator Sani said he didn't care about.
After a
moment of controversy, Senate President David Mark asked his colleagues to vote
afresh on the provision, a situation that eventually went in favour of Sani,
who, thereafter, thanked the Senate president and his colleagues for supporting
his cause.
So Senate
deleted age specification for women being married from the draft constitution
and left the marriage age for women open.
While
deleting the section from the draft constitution yesterday, the Senate claimed
that a woman is deemed to be “full of age” once she is married irrespective of
the age she did so.
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