The Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II has reiterated his call for the pegging of marriage age.
The Emir in a write up on his instagram page title ‘Marriage of women
below 18 years’ on Saturday enjoined the Nigerian Muslim community to
call for pegging the pegging of marriage age.
He said the ‘’time had come when the Muslim community in Nigeria
should live by the reality of economic recession and consequences of
early marriage.
‘The marriage age in Egypt at present was 18 while that of Malaysia
and Morocco were 19 and 17 respectively, asking “Why not we here
urgently call for pegging of marriage ages within Muslim Ummah in
Nigeria?”
Below is the full text
(Marriage of women below 18 years) – Women are suffering from
reproductive health challenges were products of such marriages. Time had
come when the Muslim community should live by the reality of economic
recession and consequences of early marriage.
The era when people gave out their daughters in marriage at early
ages and asked the husbands to wait till they were ripe was nothing but a
deception. According to me, strategy no longer worked as it had led to
cases of divorce and other ugly situations.
In the past the rich and the poor married four wives and bore between
30 and 40 children because the economy was not only buoyant but also
because people were not relying on government for sustenance.
Though the harsh economic realities now make it impossible for people
to feed twice a day these days, “Unfortunately our people do not change
and somebody with virtually nothing still give birth to 20or 30
children and this must stop”.
There was a need to peg the marriage age now because of the
challenges early marriage was posing. The marriage age in Egypt at
present was 18 while that of Malaysia and Morocco were 19 and 17
respectively, asking “Why not we here urgently call for pegging of
marriage ages within Muslim Ummah in Nigeria?”
Nigerian Muslims also practice the Malikiyas School of thought as
these countries, “We should follow suit and peg our own marriage ages
for our own good”.
I urge the relevant authorities to create a law that would punish
anybody that gave birth to children and allowed them to suffer. Most of
those neglected children not only turned victims of social vices but
also engage in terrorism. – Muhammadu Sanusi II

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