Some of the 100 girls proposed for mass wedding in Mariga Local Government Area of Niger State said they had planned to get married for a long time but their marriage was delayed due to lack of funds resulting from the death of their parents.
The drama began with the invitation card announcing that the Speaker Niger State House of Assembly, Barrister Abdulmalik Sarkindaji, would be giving the hands of 100 orphans in marriage was first sighted on the social media platform, Facebook.
Grassroots Parrot had reported how the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye blazed with anger on national news platforms over what she perceived as underage marriage and announced that her Ministry has filed for court injunction to stop the Speaker from marrying off the orphans.
The speaker was forced to withdraw his move to marry off the girls whose parents were killed by bandits following the court injunction. Eventually, the controversy metamorphosed into a full-fledged verbal war tinted with religious connotations.
However, one of the brides, Hussaina Abdullahi, said she is 21 years old and was not being forced into any marriage as she decided to get married by herself. She explained that she had desired marriage since she was 19 but her parents were killed by bandits and that halted her wedding plans.
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Hussaina said: “I am not being forced into this marriage. I decided on my own to get married. I already have someone I want to get married to. So when they said we should submit names, I presented him and submitted my name.
“My parents are dead. They were killed in different bandits attacks in our community, and that is why there were no funds to conduct the ceremony, which is why we delayed it till today,”
Twenty years old Habiba Mohammed, who also lost her parents to bandits attacks, said she was not forced into the marriage as she presented the man she wanted to get married to before she was allowed to submit her name.
“Many of the girls who came forward to submit their names lost their parents to banditry and have been trying to do petty trading to help themselves.
“Many of us are already into relationships and we were saving money for our marriage,” she said.
A parent to one of the would be brides, Amina Umar, told The Nation that her daughter is already 23 years old and has been worried about getting married since their girls usually get married at 18 years. She lamented that lack of financial support led to the delay in her daughter getting married.
Umar said: “I thank God and the Speaker, who decided to sponsor this event in partnership with other well to do individuals. Since the father of my children was killed by bandits, we have been planning to get them married but could not.
“My daughter is already 23 years old, and based on our customs, we get them married between the ages of 18 and 19, but lack of funds and the liabilities we have taking care of the family stopped us from getting her married early.
“It isn’t that she does not have a spouse. We had no money to fund the wedding. We eventually got succour through this intervention.
“We thank and appreciate them for this. We are not the only ones who benefitted. There are others too in similar situations.”
One of the grooms, Saminu Manu, who did not state his age, said he and his prospective bride had been in love since they were children and their relationship blossomed till date.
He said that his parents had been expecting them to get married but lack of funds led them to postpone the wedding for a long time.
Manu said: “The intention to get married has been with us for a long time now but we just did not have the funds.
“My fiancée has no mother or father. She lost her father to bandits when they attacked our village. The mother died shortly after the incident. So there is no one to buy her wedding things for her and that has kept us from taking our relationship to the next level.”
The District Head of Kudun Mariga in Mariga Local Government Area, Shehu Iliyasu Mariga, said that underage marriage is not allowed in the local government area, as they have been warned against it and asked to report any parent who engages in it to the Emir of Kontagora.
He said majority of the girls who were slated to get married have lost both parents while others have only one parent. According to him, it is mostly the fathers who are killed by bandits but hypertension and high blood pressure developed by the mothers due to the burden of family responsibilities have led to the death of several mothers.
He debunked the claim that some of the girls are underaged, saying that they are all above 18 years, which was why serious screening was done before the 100 girls were selected.
He said that they are called girls because they are not married while some of their mates in other local government areas are already mothers.
Mass wedding will hold, May 24 Date Remains Sacrosanct – Niger Imams
Niger State Imam Forum, made up of Chief Imams of Friday Mosques across the state and Islamic organizations, have vowed that the mass wedding of 100 orphans would be held because it did not contravene any section of the Nigerian constitution or the teachings of Islam.
The Director General, Niger State Religious Affairs, Dr. Umar Abdullahi, who is also the secretary of the Niger State Imam Forum, read out the resolutions of the forum’s emergency meeting in Minna, saying that the Imams have given the Minister a seven-day ultimatum to withdraw her court case and petition against the Speaker of the Niger Assembly or face legal action. The forum also asked her to apologise to the citizens of Niger and the Speaker over alleged blackmailing.
According to Farouk, the May 24, 2024 date fixed for the wedding remains sacrosanct. He said since the girls who are about to be wedded are between the ages of 18 and 25, including widows, the Imam Forum in conjunction with the parents of the brides would go ahead with the ceremony since the Speaker had done his part by donating funds to ensure the success of the wedding.
Ex-DG Child Rights says Minister is wrong
The Special Adviser on Public Private Partnership to the Niger State Governor, Jonathan Vatsa, advised the Minister to steer clear of the mass wedding, saying she is only fighting a lost battle because the parents or guardians of the girls will proceed with the wedding whether the Speaker is involved or not.
Vatsa, a former Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism in the state, said that under Islamic and Hausa traditions, parents have the right to marry off their daughters, adding that the Minister inability to investigate the issue led to her taking hasty steps.
Gender advocates condemn Speaker for supporting mass wedding
Some gender advocates have said that even though the Speaker had announced that he would not attend the wedding, he should not have supported such a move in the first place.
A Gender Advocate of Glads Consult, Gladys Otus, said the Speaker’s initial decision to organise a mass wedding for the young orphan girls was a short-term solution, adding that it would be more effective to provide sustainable interventions that address the root causes of the challenges faced by the young girls.
According to her, investing in their education, skills training and psychosocial support can equip them to overcome the traumas they have experienced and build a better future for themselves.
The Nation