Senate did not vote on marriage age (RIGHT OF REPLY)on July 29, 2013 at 6:08 am in Viewpoint Senator ENYI ABARIBE is Chairman, Senate Committe on Information, Media and Public Affairs. THE Senate last week voted on the report of itsConstitution Review Committee and at the end of it all, it once again achieved a milestone in altering the 1999 Constitution to bring the document in line with the general aspirations of the Nigerian people. However, while the Senate appreciates and welcomes the healthy debate that ensued within the public on some aspects of the sections that were voted on, which it sees as averitable feedback that signals the public acceptance and overwhelming followership of the happenings in the hallowed chambers, it isnonetheless bothered by negative commentaries which suggest a deliberate misinformation and distortion of what actuallytranspired on the floor when the distinguished senators voted on the each section of the report by its constitution amendment committee. For the avoidance of doubt, at no time did the senators vote, neither did they ever deliberate on any clause that has to do with marriage age. They also did not vote to introduce any new law on underage marriage. The senators only voted to amend some clauses in the articles that were already in the Constitution. It is pertinent for the public to know that the section up for amendment had to do with persons qualified to renounce Nigerian citizenship. The 1999 Constitution as amended in Section 29 (which has suddenly become a hot issue for both informed and uninformed interpretation in the press and social media), states in section 1 S29(1): “Any citizen of Nigeria of full age who wishes to renounce hisNigerian citizenship shall make a declaration inthe prescribed manner for the renunciation”. S29(4): “For the purposes of subsection (1) of this section, (a) ‘full age’ means the age of eighteen years and above; (b) ‘any woman who is married shall be deemed to be of full age’. The prevailing view of the committee before the initial vote was that Section 29(4)(a) was gender neutral but with section 29(4)(b) specifically mentioning “woman” , it now looked discriminatory and as such is in conflictwith section 42 of the Constitution which prohibits discrimination of any form. The committee thus sought for it to be expunged from the Constitution. Senators, therefore, voted earlier to expunge that sub-section and it scaled through by 75 votes. Note that under the Constitution, to amend any clause you will need 2/3 of the members of the Senate which translates to 73 votes. However, the revisiting of the voting on that section was to take care of objections raised by Distinguished Senator Ahmad Sani Yerima, among others. He pointed out that removing
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 09:23:58 +0000
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