If I did not watch the proceedings at the Senate live while they debated and voted on the citizenship renunciation act amendment, I would have capitulated. I have watched on TV protests, campaigns, speakers on TV shows all berating the Senate for passing a law that allows child marriage last week. Who is sponsoring this campaign. They are all wearing uniform T-shirts, crowds mobilized to Abuja and in Lagos. Well educated people. Many of them lawyers. What I do not understand is did all these people not first confirm what happened or were they being mischievous? Are they all totally unaware of the fact that under the child protection act passed by the National Assembly and assented to by then President Obasanjo in 2003, that the age of marriage was pegged at 18 yrs minimum. My biggest worry is how many Nigerians, home and abroad, erudite and otherwise bought into it without asking question. Emotions running high and people saying the wrong things with all confidence and all we had to do was check the records for the proceedings of that day. Is that how we will asses those who will want to rule us in the future? I hate the thought of child marriage with a passion but if we must fight it we must take the fight to the right place. We know that the National Assembly is not the culprit but the states who refuse to domicile the child protection act since 2003, giving cover for perverts like Yerima. We know that the culprits are those who deliberately claim that Islam allows child marriage because Mohamed so did, yet no where in the Koran, I am told is such mentioned. Let us not be fooled, even if the infamous 35 change their votes and the clause is expunged, it does not affect child marriage. The only way it will affect it is that such children will not be able to renounce their citizenship. That may be their trick, to get us focused on this and lose sight of the real culprits, hence this campaign.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 18:59:50 +0000
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