For as long as I can
remember, delusion, self-
interest and greed have
motivated not only the Nigerian government
but the Nigerian people who often respond
to the calculating, preying actions of their
leaders not with outrage, but with the
cunning of those who will profit by
supporting what we all know to be wrong.
However, today I am proud of the outpouring
of reactions following the passage of the
Senate's Bill making the age of consent in
Nigeria 13 (in most European countries it is
16 and even in Spain, where it is still 13,
activists, public figures, fight tirelessly to
have it raised).
Child marriage has been legalised in Nigeria,
everything our mothers and grand mothers
have fought for, to guarantee us a right to
education, a right to determine and decide for
ourselves our path in life, has been swiftly
destroyed. One question remains: Where are
the female members of the Senate?
Nigerian women need to know they deserve
better. When a female House of
Representatives member is interviewed, she
is often happy to answer banal questions on
her favourite colour, the number of Chanel
bags she owns, her favourite holiday spot.
Even film stars are more intellectually
challenged by the media. Mothers, sisters,
daughters in every walk of life, we all need to
recognise that we deserve better, that we
should be valued more than the amount we
can fetch by being sold at the altar, that we
are more than our fashion choices, no matter
how elaborate, that we are more than the
incredible pressure society puts on women to
seek existence and outright fulfilment in
marriage.
Our lives as women are worth something. It
might seem like a moot point. But believe
me when I say that there are women, even
powerful women in Nigeria and Africa today,
who need to realise this because they are
the only ones who can truly champion the
rights of the girl-child. I ask the female
members of both Houses today, how many of
their daughters marry at 13.
I ask the wealthy, carefree politicians in
Abuja today, how many have given away
their precious brood to men three or four
times their age who would be free to use
them as they see fit. Most host lavish
weddings which fill the society pages of our
magazines and the pictures tell an
interesting story: one of political and
business marriages to secure benefits and
further hoard economic opportunities by
concentrating them in the hands of the few
at the expense of the many.
It is the daughters of the poor and the
uneducated that we expect to marry at 13
because they have no voice and more so
because their families are in desperate need
of money. So their innocence, their right to
dream is butchered on the altar of some of
our lawmaker's perversities, who seek out
poor young girls and turn them into
playthings.
We hide behind religion to excuse horrific
deeds. Both Christians and Muslims are
guilty of this in the Nigeria of today. The
legalisation of child brides will open the road
towards abusers marrying their victims and
therefore being excused. In fact, we are
tacitly changing the very definition of rape or
of any kind of abuse in a society where the
rights of women and children are already so
difficult to uphold.
On whose side is our government? Whose
will are our legislators serving? If their goal
is to tear this country apart then they are
doing a fine job by giving Islam a bad name.
Christians, this is not Islam. Nor is it
another attempt at the islamisation of
Nigeria, unlike what I have heard.
Nor is this symptomatic of the North's
refusal to modernise or due to the unhealthy
influence of Boko Haram on Muslim
communities. Simply put, it is yet another
example of government's blatant attempt to
legalise gluttony, self-indulgence and
covetousness under every and any form. It is
right to steal pensions.
It is right to treat those without a rich father
or a Mercedes Benz like second class
citizens, to deny them a voice because they
are unable to buy votes or pay for the hard
earned right to preach hate, divisive
falsehoods and general misunderstanding
between ethnic groups and religious
communities. It is right and acceptable to
rob children of their innocence.
Child brides are not Muslim culture. Nor are
they an inherent part of Hausa culture.
Rather, the perpetuation of this practice is
based on debatable interpretations of the
Quran. History shows that sex with pre-
pubescent girls pre-dates Islam and can thus
not be considered typical of Islamic belief.
As such, we must recognise, due to the
availability of modern science and
technology, the health implications of
children becoming pregnant, which your
average Nigerian who might be in favour of
child marriages, might not fully understand.
Then, it is the duty of the Senate to educate
its constituents rather than to pass
controversial, misogynistic bills, which
criminals will see as a path to the
legalisation of sexual slavery and paedophilia
across the board. Our lawmakers never
seem to consider the possible unintended
consequences of their actions. Child
trafficking, rape, the brutality many young
girls face in Nigeria today, are sore topics
many would rather not address.
Every day life in Nigeria devalues women. In
offices, crude, extremely lewd jokes are
made about women who also laugh at them
like it means nothing.
We suffer unwanted advances, which are
difficult to report. Female heads of human
resources tell interns it is their provocative
dressing which attracts men and that they
must pray for guidance. So, to those
Southerners who will see this as an
opportunity for more Northern bashing, look
long and hard at yourselves. Women in
Nigeria are commodities, property. No more
than cattle in fancy clothing.
The Quran condemns non-consensual
marriages. How many of us believe that it is
a 13-year- old's dream to be married to an
old man? Men and women in Islam have
equal status before God. Ironically, in
practice, men who are greedy for money and
power turn the writings upside down and
excuse behaviour whose sole intent is to
keep women down.
I am a Christian, a Southerner and many I
am sure will say I don't know or understand
Islam. One thing I do know is that I believe
in one Nigeria and I feel akin to every young
girl up North (and who is to say it won't
happen down South now that it is legal) who
will be sold to an old man to settle debts or
simply given as a gift. Let us all remember
the little girls we once were, picture our
daughters, our nieces, our sisters and our
friends when we think of the nameless,
faceless young girls who are being robbed of
their childhood.
I am writing this because I want the world to
know our Senate's shame, especially that of
our female Senators, with their expensive
salaries (let us remember that the members
of our upper and lower chambers earn more
than the US president), their diamonds and
properties purchased with the blood and
tears of Nigerian children.
But we the youth of Nigeria will never cease
to believe in progress and progressive
religion. We will never cease to believe in
one Nigeria, we are bigger than our
differences and stronger than our
disagreements. We are a country destined
for greatness, inspite of our leaders who
choose not to allow it. I am every Nigerian
the government chooses to sacrifice.
I am every child who goes to bed hungry. I
am every jobless graduate. I am every young
person who dies in a plane crash due to
negligence. I am every person who dies on
our bad roads or in our poorly equipped
hospitals. I am every Nigerian who despite
all this believes in change. It's called the
Audacity of Hope.
By TABIA PRINCEWILL

Issue should be properly analysed before conclusions are made, I hav no problem with the topic, but in oder to avoid situation were ppl portray bad image of senator yerima jxt because he aired his view. Its imptnt to note that there exist a diff btw marriage and consumatiion as explained by senator Yerima, but in other not to generate unnecessary backlash, I am of the opinion that wot we nid now is a total re orientation of our atitude n mindset. Cos wot we are avoiding in sokoto dey our sokoto.