''Nigeria has many uncountable problems and none of them is early marriage. As a matter of fact early marriage the solution to about half of our problems. For those who wonder if I can give my daughter(s) out in marriage at the age of 9 or 13, I tell you most honestly, I can give her out at the age of 6 if I want to and its not your business. This is because I am a Muslim and I follow the example of the best of mankind, Muhammad ?.
In Islam, marriage is not only about sex, it is about family and helping one another in achieving their goals, which is the attainment of Paradise.
In Islam, a girl can be given out in marriage as early as 6 years old, but consummation of the marriage can only be done when the girl becomes physically mature and she gives her consent to it because unlike English law, it is not permissible for a man to rape his wife in Sharia's Law.
So what can anybody tell me?
Reason 1: I live in a city where young girls at the age of 12 have already became serial fornicators and cannot count the number of man they've had sex with.
Reason 2: I live in a City where primary school children disvirgin themselves behind toilets on Valentine day. Reason 3: I live in a city where young girls flood the street at night looking for men that would give them N500 to have sex with them.
Reason 4: I live in a city where parents send their daughters out overseas to prostitute and send dollars down.
Reason 5: I live in a City where Government officials pick undergraduates from University car parks with Coastal Buses to wild sex parties.
Reason 6: I live in a city where abortion is so common that even a Chemist shore owner can perform abortion with just N2,500.
These are your daughters, and this should worry you and not Yariman's private matters. So ask me again why I support early marriage and I will slap the Jinn out of your head''.
- Senator Ahmad Sani Yarima

My Reply:

First of all, I think it's high time some people start thinking with their heads instead of the beards on them. Nigeria has many uncountable problems, and seriously, early marriage is one of them.
The last time I checked, Nigeria wasn't and isn't an Islamic nation, neither are the laws governing its subjects derived from the Koran. The bane of every society's problem, is not its leaders, neither is it its government, rather, the Family.
Below is my reply to Sen. Yarima's reasons:

Reply 1: At the age of 12, a mother should have start noticing the feminine changes in her daughter's physique, knowing fully well that she's transcending into womanhood through puberty. What happens when the father can't play his role as a father in the life of his daughter because he's always absent or too busy to give attention or can't even keep track of how children he has; while the mother fights the battle of raising the child with little or no input from the father; and sometimes, a care free hand is given to this child, and at the age of 12, the father and mother can't even tell who their child has become. And here you are campaigning that a child be given out in early marriage because you can't do ur duty as a father.

Reply 2: I remember the orientation we were given at home while growing up. I know the things we were exposed to even as we stepped into primary school. I know how strict our parents were, to the kind of friends we kept, friends we brought home, friends we visited, books we read, movies and television shows we watched; the punishment that faced us each time we defaulted from them. The fear for what will become of my fate, served as a check mate for my actions. And please don't tell me this is a new age, that the world has evolved more than it was during our time, because the other kids coming tops in their class, being responsible and being good object of examples, are people's daughters too. The difference is their parents did their job well, while you didn't do yours, and the result is what you see kids do behind the toilet on valentine day.

Reply 3: Why will young girls flood the street at night, looking for men who will sleep them and give them N500 in exchange if not for the kind of hands they were dealt with while growing up. Train up a child in the way he/she should grow, and when he/she is old, they'll never depart from it. Why will a child give her body in exchange of N500n if not for the fact that she can't get that N500 at home at home from her parents. And you sit down there suggesting that she be given out in marriage at the age of 12, when you can do something to ensure that the female child don't lack the basic things she need while growing up.

Reply 4: What of other parents who don't send their daughters overseas to trade their bodies for money and send the dollars home? What of the parents who strongly encourage their daughters to be educated, to be skilled in one art or the other? What makes them different from the lousy parents who can't fulfill their God-given duty?

Reply 5: Living in a city where government officials pick undergraduates who are old enough to be their daughters, to wild sex parties, is not the problem, but seeing and knowing that such act exists, and failing to take actions or enact laws that would stop these heinous acts is more shameful.

Reply 6: You know that there exists chemists who collect N2500 to perform abortions, yet you let the practice live as a law maker; then what does it say of you? Does that make you an accomplice to an ongoing crime? Does that not reflect the kind of leader you're?

You see, the bane of these problems is the family, and the key players are the parents. Giving your daughter(s) out to marriage at the age of 6, is nobody's business and will never be. But my fear, is for the families that can't protect themselves, the widows under pressure from over zealous kinsmen, to give their daughters at that young age. What happens to the girl who gets married at that young age, and by 26 or 27 or 28, is already tired and fed up with the marriage and is embittered with regrets for the youthful days she missed due to early marriage, for the things she didn't do, and the life she didn't live as a young girl. What happens when divorce becomes the next option. What becomes of the offspring of that marriage, who are now affected by the broken homes, no fatherly figure, loose motherly presence. What kind of children do you think they'll become?

#Think with your head not beard
#Child not bride
#Gen. Sam