Ebonyi guber poll: 26 governorship candidates stepdown for Umah 

Laura Nnamdi: Is There Any Hope For The Nigerian Girl Child?

When my friends and I joke around and I decide to tease, I say things like, “Your mates in the north are grandmothers already.”

My friend said they are not above the age of 23. It seems like a joke, something to laugh at, but stop for a minute and think: if a 23-year-old could be a grandmother, how old was she when she had her kids?

 It might seem a bit of an exaggeration, but please, get the message: a lot of underage girls are being forced into early marriages, especially in the Northern part of Nigeria.

It is what we hear. It hasn’t happened to any of our sisters or friends or relatives probably because they have parents who are exposed and educated and generally because it is not societally accepted in the south, and so we read it on the news and end with the Nigerian mantra,

“Eyah! Nawa o! This Nigeria sef. Man don tire.” And then we might even go ahead to coin funny memes and make light the issue.

The reason for child marriages in the North has been attributed to a number of factors: poverty, inexposure, ignorance and so on.

 The parents have no idea they are doing their daughters more harm than good; they feel it’s an age long custom their forefathers practiced and so it is all right.

They have no idea what the psychological, physical and biological effects of forced womanhood are.

Why don’t we shake some tables? The educated amongst them send their children overseas to gain mastery at whatever they want to and then refuse to educate the ignorant amongst them.

 Their sons are the center of attraction for the ladies while they send the ignorant ones to wear bombs and blow themselves up to tiny little pieces. Let’s see what our laws have to say about this issue.

Nigeria has a law that forbids early and premature marriages. The Child’s Right Act (CRA) Chapter IV of the 1999 Constitution has the very pleasant fundamental human rights that cover the children also.

 By virtue of Section 3 of the CRA, the provisions of Cap IV of the Constitution cater to the Nigerian child also as if expressly written in the CRA.

Nigeria has a plethora of laws, very good laws that are not being executed. The Child’s Right Act is one very important law that is being suffocated in Nigeria.

This is how it works: a federal law that is supposed to apply to the whole nation cannot be enforceable in a state when the subject matter it is addressing is on the residual list in our constitution, and except that state domesticates it.

Take the Children’s (Child’s) Rights Act 2003, for instance. It is a federal law (but children’s rights matters are exclusive to the state government) and as such, left to the mercy of states to either discretionarily domesticate it so it is applicable in such states or just ignore it.

The Act was adopted by Nigeria from the UN’s Convention on the rights of a Child. It spells out the actions prohibited as concerns a child and generally caters for the protection of the rights and responsibilities of a child. So far, only 24 States in Nigeria have domesticated this act, while a weighty number of northern states have refused to do so.

Obviously, it is against the irritating desires of their grown men. How can you set a trap before a rat and still give the rat the choice to enter the trap or walk away unharmed?

The repercussion of this is that a girl child can be married off in the states that have domesticated this law and the elderly parties involved will be arrested, while if the same thing happens in the states that have not accepted this law, people would clap and eat party rice and wish an 8-year-old girl a happy married life.

What time does she have to build castles with sand? Bathe in the rain? Play mummy and daddy? Braid her doll’s hair? Get quality education? What time does she have to be a child and enjoy childhood before being whisked away to face the harsh realities of life under the rolling belly of a father-like figure? What use is the influence of educated northern politicians and lawmakers? Especially the females.

This is the true meaning of feminism, not arguing about who should cook egusi soup in the house. The rich? What are we doing? Why then are we influential? The act has very lovely laws embedded in its sections, why deprive young children of the chance to be young? Any law that kicks against a child being young until it is pertinent or it is time that he or she grows up is barbaric!

By virtue of S.14 (1) of the act, no child is to be separated from his parents against his wish. But when a child is adorned with matrimonial attire and sent off to bear children, the very same thing the aforementioned section prohibits is openly done with a thousand and one nods of approval and nothing can be done.

 SS.21-23 of the act prohibits child betrothal, child marriage, and pins the lawful age for marriage at age 18 years and places a 5-year imprisonment or/with a ₦500,000 fine as punishment. Saddening that even with such laws, some people still openly perpetuate the disgusting act of child marriage and betrothing a baby girl to a baby boy or even worse, a baby girl to a man many years her elder.

For issues as important as this, I suggest the constitution be amended and have the prohibition against child marriage expressly written therein. The constitution is the grundnorm and every other law must bow before it.

By virtue of S.1, the constitution is supreme. Any law contrary to it is to be null and void. If our constitution expressly states that child marriage and its likes are prohibited, then states will have no option but to conform because the constitution doesn’t need the permission of a state’s legislature to be effective in such states.

Also, when laws such as the CRA passes the federal level, they should become automatically enforceable throughout the nation, or take out such very sensitive issues from the residual to the exclusive list. What is the use then if the very states that should have this law operative therein have refused to welcome it?

Easier said than done? Then why do we have the legislature? Are they there to haul chairs and dispense blows whenever there is a disagreement? Why are they there if they are not working? 

Nigerians have the power to repeal and recall. It is high time we sat up and had some “koinonia” with our rights as the electorate and imbibe the true spirit of democracy.

Give the girl child a chance to be a child. We can help by spreading the word, speaking up, proposing bills that would help, anything!

The Nigerian army has suspended the activities of the United Nations International Children Education Fund, UNICEF, in the north-eastern part of the country.

The army accused UNICEF of working for Boko Haram insurgents.

In a statement by Onyema Nwachukwu, Deputy Director, Public Relations of the army, the military said it took the action since the organisation had been sabotaging the war against insurgency.

“The Theatre Command Operation LAFIYA DOLE has observed with dismay that some of the activities of International humanitarian agencies and Non-governmental organisations’ operating in the North East have left so much to be desired,” the statement read.


“There is credible information that some of them are indulging in unwholesome practices that could further jeopardise the fight against terrorism and insurgency, as they train and deploy spies who support the insurgents and their sympathisers.

“It is baffling to note that some of these organisations have been playing the terrorists’ script with the aim to continue demoralising the troops who are doing so much to protect the lives of victims of Boko Haram Terrorism and safe guard them from wanton destruction of property and means the of livelihood. The Theatre Command considers the actions of these organisations as a direct assault and insult on the sensibilities of Nigerians, as they tend to benefit more from expanding the reign of terror on our people.


“Consequently, the Theatre Command Operation LAFIYA DOLE is suspending the operations of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in the North East theatre until further notice. This has become inevitable since the organisation has abdicated its primary duty of catering for the wellbeing of children and the vulnerable through humanitarian activities and now engaged in training selected persons for clandestine activities to continue sabotaging the counter terrorism and Counter insurgency efforts of troops through spurious and unconfirmed allegations bothering on alleged violations of human rights by the military.”

br /> Source: Dailypost.ng

AHEAD of the 2019 elections, President Muhammadu Buhari, Friday, told Nigerians to preach tolerance and peaceful co-existence.

The President said doing so was a responsibility of all citizens of the country, who have a task of stopping selfish politicians from exploring the windows of religion and politicians to achieve their ill motives

President Buhari made the appeal when received a group known as the National Network for Community and Youth Development, NNCYD, led by former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed.

According to him, “The fact that you are crossing religious, political and ethnic boundaries in your engagements is praise worthy. Now we are in the season of political campaigns unfortunately some people will attempt to take this opportunity to propagate their hateful agenda.

“Therefore it is our collective responsibility to also step up by preaching tolerance and understanding.

“As a government we are doing our best but we need non-governmental organizations like the National Network for Community and Youth Development to also support us in delivering the message of peace and unity after all we only have one Nigeria, our only country.”



He commended the group for its good work, saying that the country needs more of such good groups, in order to promote peaceful coexistence and mutual understanding among citizens of the country.

But the President lamented the dangers involved in the spreading of rumours through the social media, which he said was meant to reshape the world.

He said, “In the past decade the world has seen some fundamental structural changes, a good example is the digital and cyber revolution that is still reshaping the world as we all know.

“In many instances, this development positively impacts billions across the globe however; on the contrary, the same platforms are used as tools to propagate divisions and hatred. Nigeria is not isolated from these influences.

“We are seeing rising instances where social media platforms are being used to propagate hatred, through religious, political and tribal groups. These spiteful message that insight violence and are posted by a handful of unpatriotic people anonymously.”

Speaking earlier, Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the organisation, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed said the aim of the group was to enlighten citizens of the country on the need to love one another, love the country and identify with good governance.

He said the group had since identified President Muhammadu Buhari as a champion of integrity and it will continue to support him.

Ahmed said though corruption was seriously fighting back, the President should maintain the fight, adding that with the support of few who are committed to the fight, he will surely succeed.

He said “At this point in time, Mr President, we have actualized our objective, established a first alliance foundation for positive change. This is in line with our realization of the fact that for so long this country has been governed under false pretenses.

“In our quest to make sure that Nigeria wakes up, we come and submit ourselves that we will rather persevere with temporary pains of following the path of truth rather than enjoying the comfort of deceit and falsehood in perpetuity.

“This is why at this point in time, we freely submit ourselves to the wonderful strides that you represent in this country: integrity and commitment to improve the quality of lives of Nigerians. This we did without being apologetic to anybody because we in Nigeria, if we did not come together to face the reality of adjusting the false life, and I can tell you I have been in government for quite sometimes but really, what we use to do must give way to the reality of our situation.

“In doing that we are bound to suffer, but the suffering for bringing integrity in this country is better, that is why the intellectuals here from the universities on their own, cooperating with the honorable members and partnering with our Christians brothers and sisters all over the country, we are determined to see that this country is changed for the better.

“The internalization of good things of life does not come with ease. That is why I said, this, country having gone through this rough path, we are a country in a hurry, people forget the past easily because sometimes they may not have known the past. Anybody who does not know the past will enjoy and dance for today, thereby, perpetually giving up his future.


“But we will not allow this to go on because we are Nigerians we must come together and do the correct thing. Even if it is one, two or three things that we continually do correct, we will definitely entrench a change in the system.

“We give you the necessary support because we know that you are a man of integrity, we know that you have insisted on doing things right in governance.

“Sir, this particular gathering, having been with them in the last five years, I can attest to the fact that at least, fifty percent of us are committed to seeing that the right thing is done and that you return elected in 2019.

“We commend your fight against corruption, but we have seen that it is also fighting back. If you can have even few people doing the right thing irruption and other vices will be forgotten sinner or later.”

Source: vanguard News

Obasanjo`s letter to buhari beneficiaries to Nigerians-lawmaker

Since we are still in the month of January, it is appropriate to wish all Nigerians Happy 2018. I am constrained to issue this special statement at this time considering the situation of the country. Some of you may be asking, “What has brought about this special occasion of Obasanjo issuing a Special Statement?” You will be right to ask such a question