I've been following several threat about Senator Yerima and the new bill legalising underage marriage. It seems we are mostly unanimous in our outrage but the question remains, what are we going to do about it?

I'm not from the north but I know the issue most of us have with this is the legalisation of sex with underaged girls who are not physically, mentally or emotionally matured enough to be subject to this type of abuse. But even without this beast and his cohorts passing this bill, paedophilia is something which is widespread in Nigeria without any real consequences for it's perpetrators. Uncles groping their nieces, dad's friends asking the little ones to sit on their laps whilst sporting hardons, even grown bottom men "dating" young girls..the list goes on.

I say for states where Islam is not the main the religion, we need a coordinated effort to lobby and get ourselves exempt from this horrible bill, then we need a recognised age of consent for sexual relations and anyone who falls foul of this should be punishable by law. We need laws that protect our children and not exploit them. We need the right legislature, executives and judiciary to enforce this.

Once we have these, these animals can be tried and punished, our children will not live in fear because they will know the law is there to protect them. For those who are already victims, we can create an avenue for them to seek outside help. In the UK, there is Childline and NSPCC, large charities that are there to provide support to children, we need more visible NGO's in Nigeria so these children know where they can get help.

In all, let's not stop at just saying NO, let's do something and stop these predators.

criminalising child marriage in nigeria is like criminalising islam. you won't get very far because nigerians are married to their religion. if muslims want their kids to get married at the age of 6, what's your damn business? these kids are married at a young age with the full consent of their parents and they limit their vices to their fellow islamic people - so why is everyone crying more than the bereaved?

no muslim woman in the north has condemned yerima and yet we have internet soldiers screaming against what does not concern them. i am not a muslim and i am for live and let live. i cannot decide how a certain group of people choose to live their lives. 99% of the nigerians screaming over this issue are hypocrites. only a hypocrite would condemn child marriage and openly patronises child labour.

coogar: criminalising child marriage in nigeria is like criminalising islam. you won't get very far because nigerians are married to their religion. if muslims want their kids to get married at the age of 6, what's your damn business? these kids are married at a young age with the full consent of their parents and they limit their vices to their fellow islamic people - so why is everyone crying more than the bereaved?

no muslim woman in the north has condemned yerima and yet we have internet soldiers screaming against what does not concern them. i am not a muslim and i am for live and let live. i cannot decide how a certain group of people choose to live their lives. 99% of the nigerians screaming over this issue are hypocrites. only a hypocrite would condemn child marriage and openly patronises child labour.

The women in the North have no qualms about early marriage, but the people in the South devoted their energies protesting and lamenting more than the bereaved. I wonder what they intend to gain from this protest and marching. Has anyone in the South ever seen a man married to a child in the South before? Marrying kids is not what we do in the South, so why bother protesting to something that is way of life in the Northern Nigeria? There was no single protest or maching by women in the North yesterday. Mothers in the North have no problem giving their daughters out early for marriage.

As a matter of fact, the protest and marching has embolden the Hausas more. It will not deter them from marrying children.

Bleep.u.sexkills:

The women in the North have no qualms about early marriage, but the people in the South devoted their energies protesting and lamenting more than the bereaved. I wonder what they intend to gain from this protest and marching. Has anyone in the South ever seen a man married to a child in the South before? Marrying kids is not what we do in the South, so why bother protesting to something that is way of life in the Northern Nigeria? There was no single protest or maching by women in the North yesterday. Mothers in the North have no problem giving their daughters out early for marriage.

that's nigeria for you - the people always misplace their priorities. child marriage exists in nearly all the islamic states all over the world - it's religion.

As a matter of fact, the protest and marching has embolden the Hausas more. It will not deter them from marrying children.

as far as they are concerned, that's their fundamental belief and they would stick to their tradition/culture. the only way to stop child marriage is to stop islam as a whole and that cannot happen.

I think that's not the correct spelling 'pedophilia'. Please check your dictionary @op

iamdsam: I thought this is the correct spelling 'pedophilia'. Please check your dictionary @op

Paedophilia or pedophilia are both right. British and American spellings.

Are you this daft? Is the senate a muslim or northern senate. For all i care, they can pass this types of law in the house of assemblies and any state that wishes to adopt it good and not in the national assembly. By the way, it has been happening in the north for ages and no one have ever protested against it, but making it a nigerian law is a no-no! This same yerima that started sharia in nigeria in his state, wants to indirectly introduce sharia law in the senate. This country is a joke.

coogar: criminalising child marriage in nigeria is like criminalising islam. you won't get very far because nigerians are married to their religion. if muslims want their kids to get married at the age of 6, what's your damn business? these kids are married at a young age with the full consent of their parents and they limit their vices to their fellow islamic people - so why is everyone crying more than the bereaved?

no muslim woman in the north has condemned yerima and yet we have internet soldiers screaming against what does not concern them. i am not a muslim and i am for live and let live. i cannot decide how a certain group of people choose to live their lives. 99% of the nigerians screaming over this issue are hypocrites. only a hypocrite would condemn child marriage and openly patronises child labour.

donchris999: Are you this daft? Is the senate a muslim or northern senate. For all i care, they can pass this types of law in the house of assemblies and any state that wishes to adopt it good and not in the national assembly. By the way, it has been happening in the north for ages and no one have ever protested against it, but making it a nigerian law is a no-no! This same yerima that started sharia in nigeria in his state, wants to indirectly introduce sharia law in the senate. This country is a joke.

you are a disgrace to the community that sponsored your education. why are people like you so daft with poop for brains? if it's been happening in nigeria for ages legally, how come its suddenly repulsive because it's been discussed in the national assembly?

will having it in the constitution force you to give away your underage daughter to a groom? what difference does it make whether the bill has been passed by the senate or not? try and understand an issue before you start foaming in the mouth like a donkey that just underwent manual castration!

Every Nigerian "lawmaker" who is on record as having voted to de-criminalize paedophilia, child molestation, or child trafficking, under the pathetic guise of "religious freedom", should, as a matter of great urgency, be outed for the world to know, so that every last one of these predatory monsters can be added to an INTERNATIONAL sex-offenders' database.

Self-declared Nigerian child rhapists can then be tracked as they cross international borders, with a view to referencing their own officially recorded policy preferences as the basis for the issuance of arrest warrants and property seizure orders. If Nigerian law enforcement agencies prove reluctant to cooperate in apprehending and rendering child molesters to INTERPOL, that necessary visitation of justice WILL be served regardless.

Say NO to child abuse and rhape of minors ! Say YES to identifying, prosecuting and jailing Nigerian paedophiles disguised as "officials", who vote to seek impunity in the court of law.

Jakumo: Every Nigerian "lawmaker" who is on record as having voted to de-criminalize paedophilia, child molestation, or child trafficking, under the pathetic guise of "religious freedom", should, as a matter of great urgency, be outed for the world to know, so that every last one of these predatory monsters can be added to an INTERNATIONAL sex-offenders' database.

Self-declared Nigerian child rhapists can then be tracked as they cross international borders, with a view to referencing their own officially recorded policy preferences as the basis for the issuance of arrest warrants and property seizure orders. If Nigerian law enforcement agencies prove reluctant to cooperate in apprehending and rendering child molesters to INTERPOL, that necessary visitation of justice WILL be served regardless.

Say NO to child abuse and rhape of minors ! Say YES to identifying, prosecuting and jailing Nigerian paedophiles disguised as "officials", who vote to seek impunity in the court of law.

very interesting....
jakumo, how many of their counterparts in saudi arabia have been arrested or tracked by INTERPOL for marrying child brides or this law should only be against nigerian senators who are only following the traditions of their ancestors?

Spits, shytes, urinates and slaps this little boy. So, the senate should also pass a law that every woman should be virgins like the christain virgin mary. Are you kidding me? That a national assembly should be passing religious laws that imitate their prophets? In a secular country like nigeria. You must be joke. I guess the christain senates too should go to their bibles and start searching for age of marriage for women and they start voting again. In a country of many religions, you boko haramites have decided to islamise us with your s.t.upid underage marriage. Boy, go and read your books, so, you will know that the national assembly is for the whole country and not touts who imitates a man that f.u.c.cc.cks 6yrs old girls.

coogar:

you are a disgrace to the community that sponsored your education. why are people like you so daft with poop for brains? if it's been happening in nigeria for ages legally, how come its suddenly repulsive because it's been discussed in the national assembly?

will having it in the constitution forces you to give away your underage daughter to a groom? what difference does it make whether the bill has been passed by the senate or not? try and understand an issue before you start foaming in the mouth like a donkey that just underwent manual castration!

coogar:

very interesting....
jakumo, how many of their counterparts in saudi arabia have been arrested or tracked by INTERPOL for marrying child brides or this law should only be against nigerian senators who are only following the traditions of their ancestors?

Well Cougar, head-hunting, cannibalism and human sacrifice were all "cultural practices" in some of the more regressive and primitive corners of the planet, back when those knuckle-dragging societies were little different from gatherings of predatory apes. NOW, thankfully, all those murderous practices are ILLEGAL WORDLWIDE, for obvious reasons.

The same applies to the sex with children. There exist INTERNATIONAL treaties that authorize the arrest of ANYONE proven to possess child-phorn from whatever source, OR anyone who is on record as being an advocate of perpetrating child rhape, that most depraved category of crimes against humanity.

Jakumo:
Well Cougar, head-hunting, cannibalism and human sacrifice were all "cultural practices" in some of the more regressive and primitive corners of the planet, back when those knuckle-dragging societies were little different from gatherings of predatory apes. NOW, thankfully, all those murderous practices are ILLEGAL WORDLWIDE, for obvious reasons.

yes, they are illegal worldwide because no man has the right to kill the other - but what's murderous about child marriage?

The same applies to the sex with children. There exist INTERNATIONAL treaties that authorize the arrest of ANYONE proven to possess child-phorn from whatever source, OR anyone who is on record as being an advocate of perpetrating child rhape, that most depraved category of crimes against humanity.

so why have the UN, INTERPOL, NATO, etc kept quiet about the child marriage issues all over the world especially the country where mecca sits today. the saudi monarchy has a history of child marriages. the current ruler(king abdullah) has 35 wives, majority of them were married as children and this man has visited the UK & USA times without number - why did INTERPOL not pick him up for crimes against children?

donchris999: Spits, shytes, urinates and slaps this little boy. So, the senate should also pass a law that every woman should be virgins like the christain virgin mary. Are you kidding me? That a national assembly should be passing religious laws that imitate their prophets? In a secular country like nigeria. You must be joke.

before you start foaming in the mouth, i would implore you to go and read what actually transpired in the senate. the issue was never about child marriage - it's about the renunciation of citizenship. currently, anyone under 18 cannot do so and yerima argued a wife that is under 18 should be classified as an adult and should be legally allowed to renounce her citizenship if she so wishes....

I guess the christain senates too should go to their bibles and start searching for age of marriage for women and they start voting again. In a country of many religions, you boko haramites have decided to islamise us with your s.t.upid underage marriage. Boy, go and read your books, so, you will know that the national assembly is for the whole country and not touts who imitates a man that f.u.c.cc.cks 6yrs old girls.

i reiterate, you are a disgrace to formal education. i have no doubt that you have never been in the 4 walls of a citadel of learning. you continue to epitomise acute idiocy with your lack of cognitive reasoning!

coogar:

yes, they are illegal worldwide because no man has the right to kill the other - but what's murderous about child marriage?

Children have NARROW, UNDER-DEVELOPED pelvic bones. Pregnancy and child-birth can, and frequently does KILL mothers aged less than 16 years old, on account of the severe, permanent damage caused as the baby is crushed against delicate nerve networks located alongside the birth canal, where it passes down through the narrow, IMMATURE pelvic bone. That childbirth trauma frequently leads to PERMANENT leg paralysys, incontinence( i.e constant urine leakage), and yes, DEATH.


THAT, good sir, is but one of the many, many reasons why it is MURDEROUS to rhape children, regardless of the "justification" offered by the attacker.

Frankly, it is sad to see that this explanation of medical reality even needs to be detailed to an educated person.

Jakumo:
Children have NARROW, UNDER-DEVELOPED pelvic bones. Pregnancy and child-birth can, and frequently does KILL mothers aged less than 16 years old, on account of the severe, permanent damage caused as the baby is crushed against delicate nerve networks located alongside the birth canal, where it passes down through the narrow, IMMATURE pelvic bone. That childbirth trauma frequently leads to PERMANENT leg paralysys, incontinence( i.e constant urine leakage), and yes, DEATH.

you are a very educated man but what you wrote above is a mere sensationalism. there's no single empirical evidence that early pregnancy causes severe and permanent damage. actually, it's the lack of primary health care and good medical facilities before, during and after these pregnancies that would cause severe damage.

nigeria isn't the only country where this is practised - can you show me the VVF prevalence in oil-rich countries who practise child marriage? are you actually saying the body anatomy of the children in the middle-east is different to what we have in nigeria? why is this permanent and severe damage only existing in poor countries?

THAT, good sir, is but one of the many, many reasons why it is MURDEROUS to rhape children, regardless of the "justicification" offered by the attacker.

i don't condone the räpe of anyone(man/woman/child) and i doubt muslims consider this practise as räpe. they are only following the traditions of their forefathers as directed by their holy book.

Frankly, it is sad to see that this explanation of medical reality even needs to be detailed to an educated person.

the explanation is devoid of facts.......i have studied the root causes of obstetric fistula or VVF. early marriage had nothing to do with it, comrade jakumo! poor hygiene, illiteracy and lack of good medical facilities are the crux of the matter.