We didn’t vote on marriage age, says Senate

Overwhelmed by public reaction, the Senate yesterday said its members did not vote on Marriage Age.
It said the Child’s Right Act is still intact and the lawful age of marriage is 18years.
The Senate made the clarifications in a special note in Abuja by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Senator Enyinaya Abaribe.
The note said: “For the avoidance of doubt, at no time did the senators vote, neither did they ever deliberate on any clause that has to do with marriage age. They also did not vote to introduce any new law on underage marriage.
“The senators only voted to amend some clauses in the articles that were already in the constitution. What is important is for the issue to be put in its proper perspective.

“This clarification has become necessary because of the wilful and deliberate act to distort and misinform the general public on what was never discussed nor contemplated by the distinguished senators.
“At no time was marriage as a section of the constitution discussed or voted for.”
The Senate gave details on what transpired at its plenary last week during the consideration of proposed amendments to the 1999 Constitution.
The Senate said: “It is pertinent for the public to know that the section up for amendment had to do with persons qualified to renounce Nigerian citizenship.
“The 1999 constitution as amended in Section 29, (which has suddenly become a hot issue for both informed and uninformed interpretation in the press and social media) states in Section 1 S29(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”. S29(4): ‘For the purposes of subsection (1) of this section, (a) ‘full age’ means the age of 18 years and above; (b) ‘any woman who is married shall be deemed to be of full age’
“The prevailing view of the committee before the initial vote was that Section 29(4) (a) was gender-neutral but with section 29(4) (b) specifically mentioning ‘woman’, it now looked discriminatory and, as such, is in conflict with Section 42 of the constitution, which prohibits discrimination of any form. The committee thus sought for it to be expunged from the constitution.
“Senators therefore voted earlier to expunge that sub section and it scaled through by 75 votes. Note that under the constitution, to amend any clause you will need 2/3 of the members of the Senate, which translates to 73 votes.
“However, the revisiting of the voting on that section was to take care of objections raised by distinguished Senator Ahmad Sani Yerima, among others. He pointed out that removing the clause 29(4) (b) contradicts section 61 of the second schedule of the constitution which restricts the National Assembly from considering matters relating to Islamic and Customary law.
“Revisiting the section was pure and simple a pragmatic approach. It had to be so, considering that the Senate as the representative of the people, represents all interests and all shades of opinion.
“Therefore, a fresh vote was called and even though those who wanted that section expunged were more in number, they failed to muster the needed votes to get it through. What it meant was that majority of senators voted to remove it, but they were short of the 2/3 majority or (73) required to alter an article of the constitution.
“Had voting in constitutional amendment not been based on the mandatory two-third or (73) votes of senators at the sitting, perhaps the issue would have been rested by now, but be that as it may the outcome of the voting remains the position of the Senate. S29 (4) (b) still remains part of the constitution.”
The Senate insisted that by the provision of The Child Rights Act, the lawful marriage age in the country is still 18 years.
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