The chairman, of the Nigerian Senate Committee on the Review
of the 1999 Constitution, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has insisted that the Senate
will never approve any legislation in support of early marriage.
Ekweremadu made the clarification on Tuesday in Abuja while
speaking with newsmen on the recent vote by the Senate on the recommendations
of the Constitution Review Committee. Yesterday, Senator Akin Odunsi from Ogun
state also made a similar clarification.
He said that the
senate rejected the deletion of the clause on renunciation of citizenship,
adding that the clause had nothing to do with child marriage as was being
insinuated by some Nigerians.
He said that the clause, which had been in the Constitution
since 1979, was recommended for deletion by the committee because it was
considered discriminatory.
“I just want to appeal to Nigerians to please show
understanding. Possibly they should read this section and understand that the
issues have nothing to do with early marriage.
“It has nothing to do with Islam. But essentially, it has to
do with the renunciation of citizenship. So they have to put it in proper
perspective.
“We have no bill to approve early marriage. We are not
sponsoring any bill against Islam. This particular provision has been in our
Constitution since 1979.
“In essence the senate has not done anything new to that
part of the Constitution,’’ he said.
Ekweremadu said that the committee’s recommendations were
done in the best interest of Nigerians.
He said that senators voted according to their conscience,
the dictates of their constituents and the overall national interest.
He assured that those issues which were not passed would be
considered in future amendment exercise.
He said that the principle of democracy played out in the
course of the voting as “the majority would have their say while the minority
would have the way.’’
“When we sent our recommendations, we had no delusion
whatsoever that all the recommendations will pass through. We believed that
some would go through and some will not.
“So, you will see that some of those things that failed; we
had more than half of the Senate voting for it but because we needed two third;
there was nothing we could do about it, ‘’ Ekweremadu added.
Ekweremadu, who doubles as Deputy President of the Senate,
explained that the Committee proposed a total of 31 Clause affecting 26
Sections and Schedules of the 1999 Constitution.
He urged state Houses of Assembly to also play their part
expeditiously and in the national interest when the bill is transmitted to them.
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