Responding to the nation-wide outrage expressed on the said passage of a Bill legalising child marriage, the Senate said its decision last Wednesday was “wildly misinterpreted, misreported and totally taken out of context”.
It denied any wrongdoing.

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who heads the constitution review committee, said this today:

We can never support child marriage. Let Nigerians understand with us that these issues have nothing to do with early marriage or Islam. It is purely about renunciation of citizenship.

The controversial clause deals with the procedures to be adopted by a Nigerian wishing to renounce his or her citizenship. The law says for that purpose, the person must be at least 18 years; and if the person is a woman and married, she shall be deemed to be of age.


Ahead of the Senate’s vote to amend the constitution last week, Mr. Ekweremadu’s committee suggested the definition relating to marriage be deleted, and the Senate needed 73 members to approve that proposal.

At first vote, that benchmark was met.
But a dramatic reversal soon followed after former governor of Zamfara State, Ahmed Yerima, protested the decision as un-Islamic, prompting a second vote in which the Senate secured only 65 members this time, meaning Mr. Yerima won and the section could not be deleted.

As the amendment of the constitution is a continuous process, the Deputy Senate president said, that section will be revisited.