How should government tackle incidence of forced marriages?
The government should treat them as
criminals. All perpetrators of forced marriages should be treated as
criminals. But we have to determine what a forced marriage is according
to the Nigerian constitution and under Nigerian conditions.
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There are laws and traditions that may
allow them and in that case, what should be done is that those
traditions should be outlawed and the laws should be changed.
We see now that the system is dealing
with judges who looked like untouchables. If judges could be dealt with
like this for good reason, why not traditional or religious leaders who
have erred?
- Yerima Shettima (National President, Arewa Youth Consultative Forum)
Forced marriage is not good. It is
something that was widely practised by our forebears. But Nigeria has
come of age; the entire world has come of age and we must not be seen to
be promoting forced marriage.
I think we consciously have to address
this. In Nigeria, which is a secular state, religion or ethnicity should
not be used as a yardstick in our national life. I think the government
has to look at it from that perspective.
The government should pass a law that
stops people from practising forced marriage. The age of 18 should be
the minimum age for any girl to get married, just as it is done anywhere
in the world. At that age, she would have the wisdom and freewill to
choose the kind of man she wants to be with.
Attempts to force underage girls into
marriages could encourage prostitution and I don’t even think
prostitution is in line with my religion, Islam.
These people violate the rights of these
children by forcing them into marriages and they still go back to
religion to buttress their action with one chapter of the Koran or the
other. But morally, I think it is not right.
- Okechukwu Isiguzoro (President, Ohanaeze Youth Council)
Traditional rulers should partner the
government to reduce the incidence of forced marriage. This is the only
way the perpetrators could be identified and fished out. There is also
the need to pass a law that expressly criminalises early/forced
marriage. Federal and state lawmakers need to work on such a bill.
There is a relationship between forced
marriage and commercialisation of marriage rites. Parents and other
stakeholders should be discouraged from turning marriages into
money-making ventures. Many parents who give out their teenage girls in
marriage do so for pecuniary gains. That must be stopped.
Perpetrators and economic beneficiaries
of forced marriage should be treated as criminals. The punishment should
be life imprisonment. This would go a long in discouraging those who
indulge in it.
Also, there should be public awareness
on the implications of forced marriage. When there is a sufficient
campaign against it, victims would be encouraged to speak out.
- Dr. Princess Olufemi-Kayode (Executive Director, Media Concern Initiative)
The steps (to take against the
perpetrators of child marriage) are already spelt out in our laws and
the government knows what to do. We are in a country that is lawless;
after all, a former governor of a northern state married a 13-year-old
girl and nothing happened. He wasn’t even ashamed of the act.
In law, there are no sacred cows but
some people have been able to add religious coloration to the child
marriage issue in order to sustain it.
This is annoying. There are many girls,
who are in bondage because they were married like this. We are in a
country of values and customs; there is no religion that allows you to
marry anybody without parental consent.
Liborous Oshoma (Human rights lawyer)
There should be adequate laws to protect
people against sexual harassment. Such laws must be implemented. We
also urgently need to review the existing relevant laws. We need to look
at the section of our marital laws which says that parents can give
consent on behalf of their daughters. The spirit of that law is not to
give out an under-age persons in marriage. It has to do with girls who
are betrothed but not permitted to stay with their so-called men because
their ages. This aspect of the law has been very controversial and it
needs amendment.
There is also another section of the law
on renunciation of citizenship. A clause says you must be 21 and above
to renounce citizenship but that when you are married, you are presumed
to be of age. This creates confusion especially as there is no clearly
defined age for marriage.
For instance, if you marry a 13-year-old girl, she is presumed to be of age. This aspect needs to be amended.
Betty Abah, Executive Director, CEE-HOPE
Child marriage is modern-day evil and it
is a scandal no serious country should tolerate. Girl child marriage
stunts the destiny of the victim held captive in the name of culture.
Girl child marriage kills dreams; girl child marriage stifles potential
and robs the victims, their families, communities and, indeed, the world
of the opportunity to be relevant and contribute positively to societal
progress.
Incidents of child marriage continue to
resurface and throw our country into international embarrassment simply
because our government considers the perpetuators, who are most times
big men, as untouchables.
At a time when countries like Tanzania
and Zambia are outlawing child marriage, our president is still limiting
his wife to the ‘other room’. We have not allowed ourselves to be freed
from the fetters of retrogressive traditions with all the glaring
negative indices and implications. It all rises and falls with
leadership. Government must punish offenders as stipulated by the law
and not merely give five gentle slaps on the wrist, or a seeming nod of
approval or a conspiratorial silence as we see from time to time. This
is the 21st Century; Nigerians, let’s wake up and allow girls to be
girls, please.
- Olufemi Aduwo (President Rights Monitoring Group)
Child marriage is even a sin against
humanity. The government should be serious about it and come up with an
effective check. Some people in the North hide under religion whereas
their counterparts in Arab countries do not involve in this type of a
thing. Child marriage is an issue that we should tackle and the United
Nations should be involved in this matter. Unfortunately, our lawmakers
from the North are not helping matters. We should have more
enlightenment programmes.
Child marriage is an advanced level of
child abuse. We should have a law that makes it compulsory for child
rights to be guaranteed up to the age of 17. One way of doing this is to
make child education free across the federation in order to reduce this
abuse. When you educate a girl child, you educate a mother; and you
educate a nation. Most of the child marriages have led to high mortality
rate. Imagine a girl of 13 being turned into a mother overnight. In the
South-West, it is reduced, but in the North, it is rampant. Forceful
marriages need to be discouraged.
- Innih Archibong (Executive Director, Liberty Now)
Forced marriage is a product of culture.
But so is law. The sociological school of legal thought, for example,
teaches that law is a function of the society. The historical school
posits that law grows with the people and dies with the people.
If we are going to do something about
forced marriages, the law is a ready tool. But to what extent does the
law regulate culture? This is because it is the extent to which it can
regulate forced marriages. My answer is: the law does not regulate
culture much. Any move to change the culture of a specific people must
be cultural and incremental.
What gives rise to this culture? Is it
the poverty of parents? If yes, improve the economy in ways that could
improve livelihoods and increase the income of families. Is it
illiteracy? Then, we should show religious teachers and leaders that
there are other truths outside their religions.
If the main factor is religious, the
battle could be a tough one. Yet, we can start with a campaign on age of
marriage and importance of consent.
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