Child marriage supporters blackmailed us to have their way – Mark

By SAM EYOBOKA, SOLA OGUNDIPE, HENRY UMORU & JOSEPH ERUNKE
ABUJA— SENATE President, David Mark, yesterday, said proponents of
Section 29 (4)(b) in the constitution hid under religious guise to get
the section sail through during last week's clause-by-clause voting in
the on-going constitution amendment process.
He said it was time Nigerians shunned religion when dealing with
sensitive issues if the country must forge ahead.
Already, the Christian Association of Nigerian, CAN, has concluded
plans to mobilize Nigerians to protest the non-amendment of provisions
of the Constitution, just as the Paediatric Association of Nigeria,
PAN, has called for immediate reinstatement of the age of marriage to
18 years.
Religioussentiment
Mark, who said but for religious sentiment that was injected into the
voting period, the section in question which tends to give support to
underage marriage, would have been completely deleted from the
nation's constitution.
David Mark
He regretted that rather than being praised, the upper legislative
chamberwas being vilified over its bold attempt to have the
controversial clause removed from the country's lawbook.
Speaking yesterday, while hosting the leadership of some women groups,
under the aegis of Gender and Constitution Reform Network, GECORN,
which stormed the National Assembly in protest over the controversial
section, the Senate President lamented non-appreciation of the Senate
for attempting to delete the said portion which he noted had been in
the Nigerian Constitution since 1979.
"The good of the country is for everybody and not for a particular
religious sect. Let me also talk to my own brothers and sisters who
are senators, who were probably blackmailed. That is the fact, because
itis in the open that I cannot also hide it and nobody can hide it.
They were simply blackmailed, and on that day, if they didn't do what
they did, nobody knows the outcome or how the consequences will be
today, because the people outside can say this man, you are Muslim and
didn't vote for something that is of Islamic interest, because if we
don't hit the nail squarely on the head, we may never get it right,"
he insisted.
Even as he regretted that the Red Chamber could not secure the 73
votesrequired to delete it, he, nonetheless, assured that it was not
yet over with the controversial clause, saying in no time, the Senate
would revisit the issue with a view to getting it expunged from the
constitution.
Mark stated: "It didn't go through because of other tangential issues
thatwere brought in on the floor of the Senate, total inconsequential
issues, unconnected issues that were broughtin. We wanted to remove it
but it failed, we were a total of 101 and 85 voted and I think about
six or so abstained. There was hardly any dissenting votes but once it
got mixed up with so many other issues, it didn't get the required 73
votes anymore".
Noting that the public was castigating the Senate over the issue based
on ignorance, he said: "So, first of all, I think the castigation
outside is done out of misunderstanding. Because a religious
connotation was brought into it, which is a very sensitive issue and
you must agree with me that in this country, we try as much as
possible not to bring issues that involves faith to the floor of the
Senateand indeed the chamber, we keep religion completely out of it
because what is good for a Christian is also good for a Muslim.
Earlier, leader of the spokesperson of the group and Executive
Secretary of Women's Right Advancement and Protection Alternative,
WRAPA, Mrs. Saudautu Shehu Mahdi, said they were in the Senate not
only to register their displeasure over last Tuesday's Senate's voting
supporting the retention of Section 29 (4)(b), but to call on the
National Assembly, as a whole to revisit the issue with a view to
deleting it completely from the constitution.
Sandwiched between Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development,
Hajia Zainab Maina, and the former Minister of Education, Mrs Obiageli
Ezekwesili, Mrs Mahdi said "citizenship is and must remain
gender-neutral and safeguarded from any cultural, religious or social
interpretations or connotations". She added: "The harm of maintaining
Section 29(4)(b),which is open to manipulation arising from its
ambiguity, far outweighs any arguable benefits a few females might
arguably obtain".
CAN plans nationalprotest
Meanwhile, attempts by the Senate to placate Nigerians
notwithstanding, theChristian Association of Nigerian, CAN, is
planning to call out Nigerians to protest the non-amendment of the
controversial provisions of Section 29 (4b) of the 1999 Constitution,
just as the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos describes the endorsement of
child marriage as inhuman.
National President, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, who spoke
toVanguardin Lagos before he jetted out of the country, described the
Senate's endorsement of child marriage as a shame, adding "the only
solution is for Nigerians to cry out."He wondered whether Nigerians
had been too brutalized "that we have no voice anymore to cry out,
because it's like we are so used to wrong things that everybody just
accepts it when it comes. So is this the way we are going to accept
this again? I hope not, honestly. It's a great disappointment. It's
totally against normal human justice. Children don't know anything;
they can't fight for themselves. So we'll fight for them. If the
National Assembly of a country can vote for adults to sleep with
children, your ownchildren; it just reflects and shows the condition
of the nation.
"If it is true that the Senate first voted to say that only girls
above 18 should be married; and then that vote was turned down by Mr.
Yerima, and that was overturned; and later they now voted that even
children should be married…if it is true, I think it is one of the
greatest shames of the century for Nigeria as a nation. Not just the
National Assembly because the National Assembly is a reflection of
Nigeria; it is a shame. It's a disgrace. I feel ashamed to call myself
a Nigerian. There are places I will go into right now and I don't know
what I'm going to do, especially those of us that travel around the
world."
Also speaking through the Director of Social Communications, Very Rev.
Msgr.Gabriel Osu, the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Archbishop Alfred
Adewale Martins, called on the law makers to quickly rethink and
rescind their decision and show some respect for the wishes of the
people. He said: "Failure to do this would lend credence to the
popular belief that their junketing around the nation under the guise
of receiving grassroots opinion on constitutional amendment was
another ruse for wasting time and the nation's resources."
Archbishop Martins added that any attempt by the Senate to hold on to
itspresent position would mean giving consent to an obnoxious
provision thatfound its way into a military-engineered constitution
which deprive many a girl-child the right to grow into healthy and
productive adults. Retaining that provision of the 1999 constitution
would amount to endorsing a provision that robs children of their
childhood.
Leave marriage ageat 18, PAN pleads
In a related development, the Paediatric Association of Nigeria, PAN,
has called for called for immediate reinstatement of the age of
marriage at 18 years in the country.
Expressing shock over the retention of the controversial Section 29
(4b) of the1999 Constitution, in the new Federal constitution
proposal, to the effect that the age of marriage which has been
traditionally put at 18 years has been expunged, PAN National
President, Professor Adebiyi Olowu and the National Secretary, Dr.
Jerome Elusiyan, argued that the according to the United Nations
convention to which Nigeria is a signatory, 18 years remained the age
of maturity.
"It is no surprise that the age of 18 years is also the age that
adulthood begins and the age at which an individual is allowed to
vote, drive andown bank account among others," the duo noted in a
signed statement..
PAN stated: "Our Association takes this as an abuse of the right of
the child to which our country Nigeria is a signatory and expresses
its readiness to join forces with well meaning Nigerians and other
interest groups to see to the reinstatement of 18 years asthe age of
marriage in Nigeria. This amendment in the marriage act if allowed
will make Nigeria a laughing stock in the comity of nations."
It warned that the medical consequences of Girl Child Marriage which
includes development of Vesico-Vaginal Fistula,VVF, low birth weight,
birth asphyxia among others should strongly be a deterrent to this act
that is universally condemnable.