9 YEAR OLD WIFE FOR A SENATOR
It has been bombardments and defences for Senator Sani Yarima, the ex-Zamfara State governor of the controversial sharia law fame. His brand of sharia was tagged 'political sharia' by former president Olusegun Obasanjo because of the way he propagated it.
On his marriage to a 13-year-old girl from Egypt in Abuja, readers sent responses, which I have decided to bring to the public.
Dear Ikenna, thank you for bringing the issue of Yarima's marriage to a minor to the front burner.
The senator has not demonstrated any sense of responsibility as a public officer in this act. It is wrong headed. It is a shame. It is condemnable. I laugh at the people who defend Sani Ahmed Yarima in this blunder. It is not defensible either in religion, morality or in public ethos as expected of a public officer.
I am a Muslim from Kano State and I say it loud that Sani Yarima is shameless to invoke religion for that act. I am sure he can't find any religious meaning or interpretation to accept to give out his 13-year-old girl in marriage. I know there is no place where the Holy Koran supports Yerima to marry a 15-year-old and divorce her two years after even after having a baby for him. It is a sign that he initially had no love for the little girl and deceived himself. The most high, the merciful and compassionate does not like deceit or condone deceivers.
Yarima is a lawmaker in Nigeria, and he does not make Islamic laws as a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He did not become a senator based on religious law, neither did he become governor through that. He has been the two through the Nigerian law based on the constitution he swore to defend as a senator. It is hypocrisy for him to hide under religious bigotry in his defence of being bound by only religious law. It is another lie he has told his conscience and his maker will hold him accountable for that. Yarima can't approbate and reprobate at the same time based on the personal gains he targets. To tell you that he was not sincere in that marriage, he left Egypt, another Islamic state to conduct the marriage in Abuja because the country forbids marriage to minors.
I think he should explain to Nigerians how and where he got about N15m equivalent to marry one little girl. He is the typical northern elite that loves inciting the underprivileged for his gains hiding under religion and would hold the same people down still in the name of religion. He should leave religion out of this and face the consequences of his irrationality.
Barrister Ilya Salihu Abubakar, Bompai Kano
We feel only pity for Ahmed Yerima Sani. Here is a man who as a state governor and now a senator swore to uphold the secular constitution but chooses to play up religious sentiments to defend his indiscretion. 08077010324
A 13-year-old's wildest fantasy doesn't include wedlock to a 60-year-old grandpa. A 13-year-old barely sprouts breasts. Yerima is pedophile. 08077462615
Dear Ik., your yesterday's piece on 'Wanted…senator' refers. I agree in toto that the senator's marriage to the teenager is prima facie illegal vis-Ã -vis the UN Child Rights Act. What of the extant Islamic ethics and ethos? Is menstruation not a criterion for a daughter's marriage? For we shouldn't call a dog a bad name in order to hang it. If the senator's action is irrefutably islamically justified, why the hypocritical brouhaha?
Adeoluwa Balogun, Iwo 08050253450
Do you think UN charter is a religion? The man who married the girl is a Muslim. His religion permitted him. 08021104668
If anyone decides to judge me according to rule other than those prescribed by Allah and the Holy Prophet, then he is wasting his time' (Senator Yarima Bakura) Daily Trust, Page1, 29/04/2010. My friend, UN laws are not binding on Muslims. What you wrote is trash as far as Muslims are concerned. 08021104668
Senator Yerima's marriage to a minor is the climax of child abuse. It is preposterous and goes to show how morally bankrupt our 'leaders' are. The women can go to court at least to prove a point because I know they will not get justice. The death of Mr. Edo deflated me. How on earth should anybody kill a journalist? May his soul rest in peace. Oscar Okhifo, Abuja. 08053693431
Ikenna, you know this country is in a rot. The other senators/governors do the same thing with minors except that they don't call them 'wives'. Don't expect senators to react. God will give that girl VVF to shame the devil and Yerima will divorce her for an 11-year-old. Have a nice day my bros. Bond Uche, Owerri 08056023453
The silence of the entire senate against the marriage of a minor by Senator Ahmed Yarima is very disturbing. To me, they are not different from the conspirators that killed Julius Ceasar and who later forced Mark Anthony to dip his fingers into the machete wounds in the lifeless body of Ceasar. It means that the senators have consented to the ill act. But if it is otherwise, then they should speak out and condemn it. Gerson 08075502678
It is permissible to marry as from her first menstruation, ok. 08036140249
Adieu Yar'Adua
The long drawn battle with acute pericarditis that attacked the 13th Nigerian head of state was over on Wednesday night.
President Umar Musa Yar'Adua was a man, from my distant observation, that had good intentions to make Nigeria better than he met it.
The way Yar'Adua respected the law and process of rule of law as against the rule of man he inherited from his predecessor was fascinating. I sincerely believe that but for the ailment, which put so much pressure on him and slowed down his pace, he would have made great impact on Nigeria towards a saner nation.
I missed Yar'Adua when he was away. I recall that in the days and years Obasanjo was in power, there was no stretch of two months the Nigerian masses did not gnash their teeth over fuel scarcity. But in the years Yar'Adua was effectively in charge Nigerians had end of the year free of fuel scarcity. When he was away at the end of 2009 in hospital, the Obasanjo type of fellows came back and re-enacted the man-made scarcity.
I am sure that if Yar'Adua were okay and fit, he would have made sure we had a reliable electoral reform.
If there was a second chance, I would wish you come back in good health and lead Nigeria the way your heart yearned for.
Farewell, Mr. President. If you can still pray or have wishes where you are, pray that Nigeria should have liberation from evil men who are still here and angling to destroy the nation with a comeback as president in 2011. May your ghost and those of other great Nigerians past never allow them to succeed. Adieu.