"Child Marriage Laws"

I have been hearing the name Yerima in relation to child abuse laws and what not but I've been so preoccupied with my own life that I never bothered to read up on this issue.

Contrary to what many believe, Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima et Al are not fighting for marriage to young girls be made legal. Instead, he is fighting the Senate for their decision to delete section 29 (4) (b) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, which stats that" any woman who is married shall be deemed of full age." He is being bashed for taking a fourth wife that is suspected to be 13 years of age.

Now, Yerima and his supporters are just a bunch of brain damaged men suffering from pedophilia but I think the question we should be asking is who are the pot-bellied men who sat around a round table sipping on cognac and sniffing heroine while they all nodded in agreement to write this section to begin with. They must have been high and thoughtless when they made provisions for such acts in the Constitution. I mean, why didn't the section read that anyPERSON married is of age. The limitations of living in a patriarchal society.

Anyways, Yerima is not totally crazy. Pardon my shallow thinking but all I'm about to say were things I gathered from reading up on several studies that were conducted. It is important to understand Yerima's stance even if we disagree because it would help us identify exactly what the issue is and what we need to change as a country.

In agreement to some issues outlined by some women rights groups, the fact that the another section in the same Constitution states that anyone below 18 cannot denounce their citizenship as Nigerian suggests that the law does not recognize you as an adult till u turn 18. Also, there are outlined legal voting ages and ages to get behind the wheels and drive and none of these begin at 13 nor do they accompany the married status.

Getting a bit out of context, the Federal Children Right's Act passed in 2003 defines a child as anyone below 18. Anyone charged with a criminal offense, 17 and below must be tried in the juvenile court and they have some sort of diminished responsibility. They cannot be sentenced to corporal or capital punishment. Once again, the law does not believe you have attained the maximum use of your decision making faculties till you turn 18. Nonetheless, it doesn't not outline a specific age for criminal responsibility. It leaves the states to make those decisions. Infact, some states still operate under The Children and Young Persons Law which was enacted originally in 1943 and was introduced to the Northern region in 1958 and some operate under nothing. What's the point of having federal statutes then??

Most Southern states practice these statutes. However, according to studies, most Northern states follow the Sharia Law, which states that once an individual reaches puberty, they are culpable for any criminal offence they commit. Situating the above discussion back into the Yerima context, under the Sharia Law, reaching Puberty is equal to being an adult so I think we can make a connection and sort of understand his standpoint. In other words, once you reach puberty, under the Sharia Law, you have become 'of age,' therefore, a 60 year old man taking a 13 year old girl as his 4th wife should not be illegal, so to speak. As he stated, he has done nothing wrong since Nigeria has no fixed laws. Sharia law here, Imperial law there, common and customary laws elsewhere.

The problem I see here is that like many other countries, Canada to be precise, certain statutes should be federal and should not vary provincially. Like age of consent to sexual activities, voting age, drinking and voting age and marriage age.

If deleting this particular section is really a biased and an un-Islamic motion, it should still be deleted. In this case, religion should take the backseat. I'm not saying this because I'm a Christian, if it was not in accordance with Christianity, I still would ask Christianity to take the backseat on this one also. It's just down right dirty.

This problem is beyond marrying younger girls I would say. I know we are practicing democracy but we need to have well established federal statutes that will not vary in different states, amongst different religions or ethnicities. We are lacking order, unity and efficient leaders but this isn't a new phenomenon.

If I have any facts wrong or odd opinions, please correct me.

~kdamsel~

Examination responses

So, it's that time again. Marking of the final examination scripts for JSS3 students. They will be continuing to SSS1 if they pass (however, we have heard that no student fails in Osun state, they HAVE to pass one way or another).

They were asked to give the full meaning of the acronym A.I.D.S. We actually read a book the week before their exam and we went over the full meanings of AIDS and HIV. Students in Africa nowadays are no strangers to these acronyms, what they mean and their causes & effects. Here are some answers.

Accyer Immuner Defisection Seidrum
Acquire Immune Deficiency Scheme
Acquired Immune Defisence Sidrums
Acquired Inaugural Drug Syndrom
Acquire Immune Deficiency Sympiom
Acquired Immuno Deficiency Sytom
Acquires Immunion Deficiency Syptoms
Aquid Iminous Disease Sysbols
Acquired Immunisation Diseas
Acuined Immuno deficiency Syndnome
Acquire Immurances Deficiency Symdrons
Aid Immuno Deficiency Sydrom
Acquired Immunose Deficiency Syndrom
Acquired Immnose Deficient Sedirom
Augured Immunse Defineiery
Acumen Immune Deffice Sydrom
Aquaria Immeunion Deficient Syndron
Acguires Immunes Definciery Sydrium
Acqured Immunos dellicienses
Acquired Immnose Deficient Sedirom

Can you contract HIV from touching someone?
Answer - "yes HIV is a thin that we can touch"
Seriously??????

You can't imagine how hard it was to type the answers above. Autocorrect kept fixing shit. Lol.

To test the essay writing skills they had been taught, they were asked to write a composition on one of 2 topics:
1) My Country
2) My English Teacher (me)

You won't believe the answers I got. I have included a few from different scripts.

A naive brilliant girl wrote about her country and said "the citizens of my country are obedient to the laws of the land. They pay their taxes very well and obey the laws of the land."

Homegirl's yet to find out that the citizens of her country don't do so well obeying laws or paying taxes. Moving along...

"The name of my country is Nigeria the capital of my country is Nigeria the capital was newly changed from Lagos to Nigeria."

"My country is a fery large countries with many states and continents" (ROTFLMAO)

"The name of pm Country is Osogbo. I like my country because is beautifully I like my Country because is a big Country The name of my school is osogbo Grammer school
I like my country So much. Because. my. country is a. big. country. that. all"

"The name of my country is Nigeria. I l.i.ke my country the reason is that our government give.us free education and .free. cloth the name of my government is ogbeni. rauf Adesoji aregbesola there are some. thing in. Nigeria. I like. my. country"
(the name he mentioned is the governor of Osun state's)

"The name of my Country is Osun state. Osun state is the biggest state I like my county because thins are very cheap the name of my father is F***** The name of my mother is y*****"
Seriously????????

Some chose to write about their English teacher and while most of them said how natural my beauty is, how many piercings and tattoos I have and how well I can speak English, others wrote some more nonsense. Some even prayed for me in the essay.

Some said I was 4ft, 11/2 ft and 6ft tall. Some said I was light, chocolate and others said dark in complexion. Some said I am an indigenous Osun state citizen from a town/village called Ila Orogun (I got this twice and it made me wonder if I had characteristics of people from there). Some said I live in Ibadan. Some said my favorite food is rice and meat while others said my hobbies were reading and teaching and playing cricket (straight face).

"She is chocolate in composition"
"She is chocolate in comprension"

Both students meant 'complexion' ofcourse.

Most of them talked about me in past tenses. "She was beautiful, she was always friendly with everyone." That's just because they can't differentiate between when to talk in present or past tenses. One even referred to me as an 'it' throughout his essay.

Now, I know this looks bad on me as their English teacher but I tried my best throughout this term. Some of the students improved and others just don't care. And I think it's because they know that the system will push them through to SS1 regardless of their grades so I just amuse myself with their work because education is clearly a joke in this state.

Remember how I avoided being president of my CDS group?? The gentleman that became president when I was nominated has made it his duty to get me active in the group and has appointed me as the chairperson of the Project Committee. But! This is a story for another day.

~kdamsel~