Nigerian Senate Okays Marriage For Underage Children

The Nigerian Senate has approved the marriage of under-aged children regardless of their age in the country.

This new law will proscribe the 18 year-old rule for any Nigerian child to qualify to be engaged into a conscious agreement of marriage.

The Senate claimed that a woman is deemed to be full of age once she is married irrespective of her age.The Proponents or supporters of the under-age marriage rule includes Senator Yerima Ahmad Sani, Zamfara West, who claimed that the provision which stipulates

a certain age for women before getting married, was at variance with Islamic law.

The resolution was made by lawmakers on Tuesday after a vote on recommendations of the Senate Committee on the Review of the Nigerian Constitution.

Following this development, many Nigerians have continued to react negatively. one of them is the Executive Director of PROJECT ALERT on Violence Against Women, Josephine Effa-Chukwuma, described the resolution as a selfish one.

She said that (the resolution) would contradict the Child Rights Act which stipulated that “a child is anyone below the age of 18″.

“That is very reckless of them and insensitive of them to the plight of young girls, especially in this time and era of child sexual abuse; the implications and complications that come up from early marriage which we all know; VVF, RVF and all that.

“So, if they go to the constitution to remove the age restriction that says one cannot marry a teen, then, they might as well throw the Childs rights acts out of the window.

“The Childs Rights Acts says clearly that a child is any one below the age of 18; or are they oblivious to it , it is completely
unacceptable,” she said.

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