Notes

Section 29 (4b) of the Constitution that states: Any woman who is

married shall be deemed to be of full age, they said: The meaning
of this provision is to the effect that although the same Constitution
considers 18 years the legal limit for adulthood, which also signals
the beginning of the right to vote, a married girl who is under the
age of 18 will be considered an adult for the purposes of renouncing
her citizenship.?? (Thisdaylive.com, 10/08/13. Accessed on18/08/13)
The Senate moved Tuesday to douse tension over the raging storm
that its adoption of a provision of the constitution amendment
report, that tend to encourage marriage of underage girls, has
attracted.
According to Ekweremadu, section 29 of the constitution "is
specifically and unambiguously for the purposes of renunciation of
citizenship and not marriage". (Thisdaylive.com, 24/07/13. Accessed
on18/08/13)
So is this section of the constitution basically one that gives the
woman the right to annul her citizenship when she marries?

Article title: A miscommunicated fight

INTRO:
On the 16th of July 2013, what started as a constitutional
amendment process by the Nigerian senate and House of
Representatives ended in a fierce nationwide debate on the
seriously neglected needs of the Nigerian girl-child.
The purpose of the review was to receive recommendations from
the Senate Constitutional Review Committee on the 1999 Nigerian
constitution. Some of the laws altered included
Empowering the National Assembly to be able to make an
entirely new constitution for the country (Section 9),
Section 29, under Chapter III, which deals with citizenship and states
that
(1)

Any citizen of Nigeria of full age who wishes to

renounce his Nigerian citizenship shall make a

declaration in the prescribed manner for the
renunciation.
(2)
The President shall cause the declaration made
under subsection (1) of this section to be registered
and upon such registration, the person who made the
declaration shall cease to be a citizen of Nigeria.
(3)
The President may withhold the registration of
any declaration made under subsection (1) of this
section if(a) the declaration is made during any war in which
Nigeria is physically involved; or
(b) in his opinion, it is otherwise contrary to public
policy.
(4)
For the purposes of subsection (1) of this section.

(a) full age means the age of eighteen years and

above;
(b) any woman who is married shall be deemed to be
full of age.
(Nigerian-law.org/ConstitutionOfTheFederalRepublicOfNigeria)
The Senate initially tried to expunge the ambiguous/masqurade
clause 4(b) on the grounds that is was discriminatory and they had
collated the minimum number of Senate votes needed to do this i.e.
HOW THEY WERE REVIEWED AND A CONCLUSION ON WHAT THE
REVIEWERES FINALY CONCLUDED.
STATE ALL THE LAWS AS WRITTEN IN THE CONSTITUTION

BODY:
These reviews were meant to aid the denouncement of citizenship
by a woman. However, after a series of overzealous articles were
published by popular Nigerianpublishing houses, the Nigerian
poplulace was made to believe that the review was instigated as an
opportunity for paedophilic government officiasls to marry
undeaged girls under the guise of their religios practices. Many
promiment Nigerians inclusing Femi Fani-Kayode, Stella Damasus to
name a few, took to media in a public criticism against the Nigerian
senate and govermnet. The most criticized official in this case was
none other than senator Yerima who in 2010 married a 13 year old
Egyptian girl. Accoriding to the nigerina constitutoj , this is against
the law. Mention the protest. Did it go on.
Look for recent news on the developments
Mention the AlJazeera interview
For those interested, (as highlighted by that laweyers article on
thisday) these laws in the Nigerian constitytuon are those that
actually affect child marriage in the country.

Is the senate realy doing anything to enforce what is an obvious

problem?

CONCLUSION:
This information caused a viral uproar especiallu among yound
Nigerians who took to social media outlets such as instagram and
twitter with the hashtag #childnotbride. The disgust at the lax
attitude of Nigerian law makers was palpable. Although the uprar
was caused by misinformation, we shold be glad that it has been
borught up. Rather than let it passs in the moment as all other
outcries, we should go through the proper channels to institute a
change in this situation.
Highlught a need for Nigerians to channel their efforts into worthy
causes but using the right information as they would be heard by
the govenrmnent a little louder next time.