•100 brides to be given out to suitors in Niger
From John Adams, Minna
Bangi, headquarters, Mariga Local Government, Niger State, is agog and in festive mood. What started off as fight-to-finish following the announcement of a mass wedding plan for 100 girls in the area has now been resolved on the side of reason after due consultations with stakeholders.
To ice the cake for the brides, their suitors, parents and the community at large, instead of court action and enduring emotional trauma over the legal process, the highly publicised mass wedding will now be preceded by an empowerment scheme by the Federal Government.
The journey to this stage, however, was not entirely smooth. It has rough edges all the way. A few weeks ago, Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Abdulmalik Sarkindaji, announced his decision to sponsor the mass wedding.
However, his announcement was not well-received and snowballed into controversy. A statement by the Speaker’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communications, Shamsudeen Lawal Binaira, dismissed the insinuation that the girls were being giving out in marriage against their wishes:
“Over 50 per cent of them already have suitors, but cannot go ahead because their parents have no resources to meet marriage expenses as required by customs and traditions.
“The other categories are those who lost their parents to insecurity in the area. They have nobody to finance their wedding even though they have their suitors waiting.
“Majority of these girls are orphans who lost their parents, including children of our gallant vigilantes who lost their lives to bandits and have nobody to finance their wedding despite attaining marriage age with their suitors.
“These girls are not being married out against their will or that their husbands being forced on them. They have suitors of their own choice, only that their parents and relatives do not have the means to marry them out.
“According to Hausa tradition, you cannot marry out a girl without accompanying her with some essential needs to make her comfortable in her husband’s house like room furniture such as bed, mattress and kitchen utensils.
“That is what these girls are lacking. That is what the Speaker agreed to shoulder and relieve their parents of such burden. Their parents have been postponing the marriage dates for lack of resources.”
However, Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, went to court to stop the mass wedding: “This is totally unacceptable to the Federal Government. There is something called the Child’s Right Act. I said it from the onset, that it is no more business as usual.
“These children must be considered. Their future must be considered. The future of the children to come out of their marriage must be considered too.
“I have gone to court. I have written him a letter and have also written a petition to the Inspector General of Police. I have filed for injunction to stop him from whatever he is planning to do, until a thorough investigation is carried out on those girls, to find out whether they gave their consent, to find out their ages.”
Secretary of the state Council of Imams, Umar Abdullahi, reacted: “The forum will not take it lightly. Her comments are capable of causing a crisis in the state and the country in general.
“The planned marriage has the blessing of all the religious and traditional leaders from the area. The sponsor of the marriage consulted widely before accepting to take the responsibility. We are strongly behind him.
“The girls are not under-aged. They are not being forced into the marriage as the minister has made the public to believe. This is what the minister failed to investigate.”
The Muslim Lawyers Association of Nigeria (MULAN) vowed to engage the minister in a “fierce legal battle. MULAN wants to condemn and specifically fault the position of Kennedy-Ohanenye on the proposed mass wedding of 100 orphans in Niger State.”
Chairman, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), Kano State Chapter, Hassan Indabawa, told the minister to withdraw the litigation and petition she wrote to the IGP. He urged Nigerians to learn to respect one another’s culture and traditions:
“We found the harsh and hasty decision taken by the minister over a matter that is entirely beyond the scope of her ministry unacceptable.”
Former Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Jonathan Vatsa, advised the minister to stay clear of the religion and culture of the people of the state: “The minister is fighting a lost battle as the parents of these girls will go ahead and marry out their daughters as planned whether the speaker is directly involved or not. The parents have the right to do so under Islamic and Hausa tradition.
“The minister should not dabble into issues that she knows nothing about. No amount of threat of court action can stop these parents from giving out their daughters in marriage after receiving the necessary supports.”
However, following consultations with traditional and religious leaders from the state, the minister on Monday formerly announced her withdrawal of the suit. She said the ministry would collaborate with the speaker and traditional rulers.
She added that they were currently investigating the ages of the girls to ascertain if they were within the stipulated age for marriage: “The will for now, focus on empowering girls as well as other girls affected by insecurity in the state.
“Both the ministry and the speaker have now agreed to partner with a view to improving the lives of the girls through the deployment of various initiatives such as formal education, skills acquisition as well as provision of tools that meet with their specified areas of interest
“With the partnership, the orphans have now become part of the ministry’s family. I have taken the village as a job. I am promising Nigerians that I will make sure I will not fall their hands. I am going to empower them with sustainable economic empowerments.
“I’m going to on board with them on our portal. Whatever the Federal Government is doing for every other person, all of them will get. The ministry will not abandon them.
“The ministry will ever remain steadfast in the implementation of its mandate, especially in the area of the protection of the lives of women, children and the vulnerable.”