The Senate has said that it's decision has been misconstrued.
The power house has defended its decision to retain a
controversial section of the constitution that seems to support child marriage,
asking Nigerians to be calm and understand that the section has nothing to do
with marriage, but instead citizenship.
The Senate said Nigerians had nothing to fear as it will
never support child marriage, a subject at the centre of the controversy over
Section 29, subsection 4(b) of the constitution. “This has nothing to do with
child marriage; we will never support child marriage,” said Deputy Senate
President Ike Ekweremadu, who heads the review committee, said.
That section details guidelines for a Nigerian to renounce
his or her citizenship. Part of the law says the person must be at least 18
years. But if the person is a woman and married, the section continues, she
shall be deemed to be “of age”.
An attempt by the Senate last week to delete the second
definition having to do with a married woman, as part of its ongoing
constitutional amendment, failed after a member, Ahmed Yerima, claimed it was
un-Islamic.
The failure has sparked intense public anger, one of the
most sweeping, against a decision by the National Assembly in years.
