eldoradoxx: Thank you. Yerima said it all. My take on this is that if a girl is mature enough to be intimate out of wedlock, why not let a man marry her and legalise what she would otherwise be doing under the staircase, behind the school toilet, and other places. Would we rather have her do abortion at age 16 or prostitution or used as baby making factory at Aba or Owerri at age 17 than allow a decent man marry and care for her? We always say that Western societies are civilised, yet under the law in Britain a girl of 16 can legally marry with the consent of her parents or guardians, so why are we pretending here ! Are we now more civilsed that British and Americans ? If most of us make enquiry grandma, we would discover that many of them married at as early as age 14 and had their first kids at 15 or 16. If not for education that has deceived us into believing that to have kids is the end of educational pursuit, shudnt we rather follow the foot steps of our ancestors. Did our granddmom know anything like fibroid, did they have any cause to seek for abortion? How many of them were prostitutes ? They were not because they never had opportunity of being deprived of sex when they became biologically ready for that. Most of people who argue against Yerima's views do so because they probably are being intimate with girl out of wedlock and as far as they re concrned, it is ok and therefor, marriage should be an afterthought. Women are everywhere with nobody to marry them because sex has become too cheap, a man would rather have sex with different women than marry and you think Yerima is wrong ?

by BudgIT

Lots of Nigerians have taken up issues with the senate’s constitutional amendment voting session last week and have launched a campaign against under-age marriage in the country.

Last week, 35 senators led by Ahmed Yerima had caused an amendment which would have struck out a problematic clause in the constitution to be defeated. The amendment sought to delete a constitutional provision which states that “Any married person is of full age.” The constitutional amendment committee wanted to state explicitly that full age is from 18 years, but Yerima and the 34 other senators were of the view that full age must be conferred on any married woman no matter her age. Yerima is currently married to a 17 year old.

BudgIT has produced this infographic which features some relevant information about under-age marriage, its prevalence and some of its deleterious effects.

khattab02: @lee007,olulaw and others, accussing the Prophet(pbuh) of havin bad and dangerous examples.Important Advice, desist from such for Almighty God will punish u severely for spread lies and falsehood against his messeger whom u refused to follow and I can bear witness to that. If what u people tink is true and correct (bad example) why will Micheal H.Hart wrote in his book Hundred most Influencial men of the world,top of the chart and number one prophet muhammad(salalahu Alaihi wa salam) that a non muslim.And I can give u other non muslims who pay great tribute to him like Thomas carlyle,La-Martine e.t.c.Yet they didnt see any bad examples.Olulaw, u tinks muslims are only making claims pertaining to the Qur'an and established scientific facts.There are morethan 6000 ayats(proves, evidences,verses,signs) of the Qur'an of which morethan a 1000 speaks about established scientifics facts,many of these facts we have come to know 200, 100,150 or 50 years ago in science.Who could have mentioned it 1400 years ago? It only the supreme lord of the heavens and earth Almighty GOD.To know more visit WWW.IRF.NET or WWW.PEACETV.ORG and go to their FAQS. Same goes for u Lee007.

stanech: Fight corruption leave who wan marry 2 years old mk e marry

Diplomat001:
Those who shout #ChildNotBride , carry placards, sign petitions, I guess are sex-mongers, religious extremists, Educated illiterate, abortion promoters and people who have read so much they cannot understand simple English like those of Sen. Yerima...
"...but consummation of the marriage (litterally means sex) CAN ONLY
BE DONE when the girl becomes
physically mature and SHE GIVES HER
CONSENT to it because...."
Forget about the Senator's private matters,
How many of you fathers can boast of virgin daughters?
How many of you husbands met your wives as virgins?
How many times do you university students engage in sex weekly?
How many porn videos did you watch and practise as a kid?
How many of you girls are still virgins?
Sen. Yerimma's argument is simple
-Let her be engaged as a kid, she knows her husband
-NO sex till she grows up and consent.
-If she gets matured and dislike the marriage, dissolve it!
-Meanwhile, throughout maturity, since she's engaged, she's safe from adultery!
Now, tell me, You carrying #ChildNotBride
Do you want your daughters and sisters growing up clean or disvirgined because "she is free till 18". Think twice
Don't be stupid, SAVE the Girl Child

Jibril T. Babatunde
I Support Sen. Yerima. RE-BC if you agree

stanech: Fight corruption leave who wan marry 2 years old mk e marry

dozzybaba: My friend what you are saying amounts to defeatism and very sickening. Somebody seat down somewhere in Abuja and a retrogressive, outrageous, pungent and toxic law for you, your family and your generations unborn, and you care less? When your children's children begin to curse you in your grave for doing nothing. I wonder if posterity will let you rest in peace.

Pat yaks: Yerima is rit, but i cannot willinly give my dauther out premature, without quality education, am 100% sure yerima is just makin mout he cannot do dat.

stanech: Fight corruption leave who wan marry 2 years old mk e marry

sincerenigerian: Stop displaying stupidity! Under age marriage is practiced in many parts of the world including USA. 13 year old can get married in US with parental nod. Take your religious war to Saudi Arabia.

eGuerrilla:

We are no longer living in medieval times where there was no place for childhood.

Any sane society must enact laws to protect the weak.

Diplomat001:
Those who shout #ChildNotBride , carry placards,
sign petitions, I guess are sex-mongers, religious
extremists, Educated illiterate, abortion promoters
and people who have read so much they cannot
understand simple English like those of Sen.
Yerima...
"...but consummation of the marriage (litterally
means sex) CAN ONLY
BE DONE when the girl becomes
physically mature and SHE GIVES HER
CONSENT to it because...."
Forget about the Senator's private matters,
How many of you fathers can boast of virgin
daughters?
How many of you husbands met your wives as
virgins?
How many times do you university students
engage in sex weekly?
How many Indecency videos did you watch and
practise as a kid?
How many of you girls are still virgins?
Sen. Yerimma's argument is simple
-Let her be engaged as a kid, she knows her
husband
-NO sex till she grows up and consent.
-If she gets matured and dislike the marriage,
dissolve it!
-Meanwhile, throughout maturity, since she's
engaged, she's safe from adultery!
Now, tell me, You carrying #ChildNotBride
Do you want your daughters and sisters growing
up clean or disvirgined because "she is free till
18". Think twice
Don't be silly, SAVE the Girl Child
Jibril T. Babatunde
I Support Sen. Yerima. RE-BC if you agree

bgirl:

Is it because your grandmother survived? Do you know how many of her mates died in child birth? Do you know how many gave birth to unhealthy babies/still borns? Do you know how many suffer severe health issues as a result of this assault? Please, please do your research before you speak.

If sex is too cheap then women and men in society need to work on their morals. Marrying a 12 year old child is not the solution. Instead of you to raise your daughter to respect herself and maintain high morals, your solution is to marry her off to a disgusting old man?

Besides it is a big lie. There is NO city in Nigeria where 12 year olds are having sex and disvirgining themselves behind toilets. That is completely false. There is no study, no statistics. Nothing to support this ridiculous allegations.

baby_123:
Shut up, liar an underage cannot marry an adult in the US. An underage can only be given consent to marry another underage. rubbish. Stick to what you know.

stanech:

I will not give my child out and I will not marry a kid. Na by force?

What really affect us more is those fools stealing our money that's what we shoud be worried about. Not some stupid marriage law we can do nothing about

babylolaroy:
yu can imagine. Nigeria has countless problems and am sure child marriage isnt one of it..

Sconty09: : Why we defile smallgirls –Pentecostal Pastor reveals

By Simon Ebegbulem

.

eGuerrilla:

Your understanding here is completely flawed.
This not simply an issue of marriage law but, rather, more to do with rights of children.
Do I take it you are one of those who considers the later a matter of little consequence?

eldoradoxx: As I am writing this, the legal age under the law is 16years both in Nigeria and UK and States in America! Does it make us all barbaric? I am a christain and a Southernern, but the way we are going about it is not proper. A muslim is free to marry a girl once she reaches puberty, that is the injunction of Allah and Mohammed SAW and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. Remember that God's law is superior to any man-made law. It is the Islamic Ulama that can give a definite pronouncement on what age should be considered puberty and not National Assembly. Besides that I think that the heat generated by this is uncalled for. There is no such bill seeking to fix marriage age. Tje constitutional amendment only wanted to insert a new close thaty would recognise a woman married woman of 18yrs and above as being of full age. Majority of senators agreed while 34 led by Yerima disagreed. It has nothing to do with marriage age. It is merely on issue of citizenship. Second 29 of 1999 Constitution.

The Child Right's Act 2003, passed into law in the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja), defines a child as a person who has not attained the age of eighteen years.

However, according to Art. 2 of Children and Young Persons Act, enacted in Eastern, Western and Northern regions (hereafter referred to as CYPA, see details p.21-22), a "'child' means [a] person under the age of fourteen years, while 'young person' means a person who has attained the age of fourteen years and is under the age of seventeen years."

eldoradoxx: As I am writing this, the legal age under the law is 16years both in Nigeria and UK and States in America! Does it make us all barbaric? I am a christain and a Southernern, but the way we are going about it is not proper. A muslim is free to marry a girl once she reaches puberty, that is the injunction of Allah and Mohammed SAW and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. Remember that God's law is superior to any man-made law. It is the Islamic Ulama that can give a definite pronouncement on what age should be considered puberty and not National Assembly. Besides that I think that the heat generated by this is uncalled for. There is no such bill seeking to fix marriage age. Tje constitutional amendment only wanted to insert a new close thaty would recognise a woman married woman of 18yrs and above as being of full age. Majority of senators agreed while 34 led by Yerima disagreed. It has nothing to do with marriage age. It is merely on issue of citizenship. Second 29 of 1999 Constitution.

Maxymilliano: Got this from the Facebook Page of Femi Fani-Kayode

babylolaroy:
yu can imagine. Nigeria has countless problems and am sure child marriage isnt one of it..

sweet_gala:

Leave that one and face front, does the Quran advocate the marriage of young children?

Chinom: I have never paid attention to this issue and i honestly don't consider it important. It's very far from my bed. I'm more concerned about fighting Corruption and having constant electricity-24/7 in Nigeria. Child marriage is solely a problem of the Northerners and the parents that give a 12 tear old out for marriage. POVERTY is the root of this "problem".
Only very poor parents give their child out for marriage
Note: In most villages in Southern Nigeria,underage girls still get married.

Afro connect:
Poor victim,its a shame you didn't had a childhood,but we will try to protect the others coming up.

stanech:
10000 likes