The Newly crowned Miss Nigeria has already started to do work which she is expected to dohe ground running:
“These children are not prepared for the tedious demands of Marriage and family life. This kind of law will keep relegating the girl child to the background and will also reduce her chances of being educated in order to liberate herself,” she said.
“Child marriage perpetuates poverty and leads to poor health as children will not only be withdrawn from their peers, but they will have psychological trauma and physical challenges such as Vesico Vaginal Fistula” she said.The young queen who in the next few weeks will launch her pet project is determined to use her office to fight sexual violence stating that this act is not only harmful to the girl child but also to the family, community and the nation as a whole because it slows down development.
“This is the right time for all well meaning Nigerians to come out and speak against this shameful act because it will go a long way to derail the current transformation agenda of the current administration and subsequently place the Nigerian girl far behind her peers across the world”
“I want to also use this medium to urge the House of Representatives to follow the path of honour by rejecting this particular clause during their Clause – to – Clause consideration of the amended part of the constitution” she concluded.
It will be recalled that on the 16th of July 2013, the Senate resolved to alter section 29(a) of the constitution which stipulates that a woman shall not be qualified for marriage until she attains 18 years. The Senate deleted the age specification for women from the draft constitution and left the marriage age open which implies that children can marry.
Signed by Enakeno Oju
Manager Miss Nigeria Organisation/Chaperone to the Queen
21st July 2013
Anna ur idea and contribution is a welcome idea and I encourage u to do more. Our law makers do alter d constitution most times just to satisfy their personal reason and ego and most times for d interest of few elites in d society. The child marriage act if fully implemented will reduce Nigeria to nothing before d other world and encourage child trafficking. Anna tanx