"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~