Senate didn’t vote for girl-child marriage —Senator Bagudu

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Interior, Senator Atiku Abubakar Bagudu, speaks on the controversy generated by the vote, last week, by some senators on Section 29 (sub-section 4b) of the 1999 Constitution relating to girl-child marriage, among other issues. DAPO FALADE brings excerpts:

HOW do you feel in the face of the series of attacks against the Senate by Nigerians, especially in the social media, over its alleged support for child marriage?

Just like you, I have been following events in the press. What saddens me is, how many people that I would ordinarily respect their opinion argued devoid of the facts. The element of the constitution that brought this forward is the renunciation of citizenship and it provides that a Nigerian of full age can renounce his citizenship. Section 29 of the 1999 Constitution goes ahead to explain what it meant by full age. It says (a) 18 years and above and (b) any woman who is married. That is what is in the constitution as of today, and there was an attempt to remove the second element which relates to a woman who is married and being of full age and that failed.

I was one of those who voted against the change. What I read in the media is a total misrepresentation because people now took it to say that the Senate has considered child marriage and that is not correct. That is not true. Marriage in Nigeria is regulated by the Marriage Act, the Matrimonial Clauses Act and the various communities’ laws which are recognised by the constitution, including Islamic laws. The Tiv have their communal laws just like the Idoma. If you go to the Igbo-speaking part of the country, you will see their communal laws.