8,000 Nigerian women hold march in push for leaders’ help to get husbands Some 8,000 Nigerian women have asked their government to help them get married. Women dance during the yearly Lagos carnival parade, on April 1, 2013 ADVERTISEMENT Some 8,000 Nigerian women have asked their government to help them get married. The leadership of Zamfara state has pledged to come to the aid of the group, which has been denied happiness by the heavy burden of getting men in their lives. The women on Thursday marched through Gusau city to hand in their petition to the religious police in the state, which is partly governed by Islamic law. Traditionally, women need to provide furniture for the marital home, but this is too expensive for some of those seeking husbands. The women belong to an association that acts as a match-making service. The Zamfara Widows Association represents divorcees, widows and orphaned girls looking to find suitable Muslim husbands. “Many of us cannot afford two meals in a day because there are no men to support us,” Nigeria’s Premium Times quotes the women as saying. Mr Abdullahi Muhammad Shinkafi, the commissioner of religious affairs for Zamfara state government, told the BBC he understood their plight and need for financial assistance. “What the widows are after is to get married... and in Nigeria in particular, there are a lot of traditions that are money-demanding in the process of getting married,” he told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme. “That is why they marched and are seeking for the government’s attention.” DEMANDS TO BE ANALYSED He said their demands would be analysed as Zamfara did its best to help those living in poverty. The BBC’s Bashir Abdullahi says in Kano state, also in northern Nigeria, the board of the religious police, or Hisbah, often organises mass weddings for poor widows and divorcees. The Hisbah pays for the wedding clothes, the bride price to be paid by the groom and the furniture to be provided by the bride. But Mr Shinkafi said budgetary restraints might not lead to a speedy solution for the women. “It is one thing to bring couples together, it is another to sustain their living,” he said. Meanwhile, Nigerian Islamist group Ansaru has released a video of a French national kidnapped in December, the SITE jihadi tracking website said. In the video posted online, the hostage identifies himself as 63-year-old Francis Collomp, an engineer with the French firm Vergnet, who was “kidnapped in Rimi in Katsina state on 19 December 2012 till today, 25 September 2013.” The hostage appears wearing a white t-shirt, with an unidentified person holding a weapon in the background. If authentic, it would be the first video of Collomp to emerge since his abduction. The abductee’s brother, Denis Collomp, told AFP of his relief at seeing the images, while still fearing for his safety. “I’m relieved, it’s good, even though he looked tired,” he said from his home in southeastern France. But he added: “Ansaru have never released a single hostage, so it’s still very worrying.”
Posted on: Sun, 29 Sep 2013 05:26:25 +0000