ISSUES ARISING:Curbing child abuse: A global perspective

In Nigeria, like in most developing
countries of the world, the menace of
child abuse is not unconnected with
extreme poverty.
Globally, women rights issues seem to
dominate discourse at most human
rights fora, and one renowned rights
activist was quoted to have said recently
that women deserve all the attention
because they produce life.
Not long ago, the UN Human Rights
Office and the Water Supply and
Sanitation Collaborative Council,
organised an interactive dialogue that
explored women’s advances in securing
their rights and dignity in topics related
to water, sanitation, and hygiene, the
elimination of female genital mutilation,
access to sanitary facilities and
materials, and access to health
education.
Recently also, UN photojournalist,
Stephanie Sinclair, exhibited photos of
numerous child marriages around the
world, in what he tagged “Too Young to
Wed” The exhibition at the United
Nations in Geneva, highlighted the issue
of child marriage through more than 30
photographs of child brides from around
the world.
As a journalist and also a lawyer, this
writer has carried out investigative
reports on human trafficking,
particularly in Nigeria, where children
are trafficked from their villages to
urban areas and are turned into family
breadwinners at the detriment of their
education. The children are freely
released by unsuspecting parents with
the promise and assurance that they will
continue their education in the urban
areas, only to end up peddling various
items in the streets. Poverty is also a
major factor contributing to human
trafficking in Nigeria. These are the
dimensions that girl-child human rights
issues have taken on the global terrain.
Nigeria seems to be lagging behind in
this respect.
According to Maalla, a 16-year-long-
distance runner on the matter of child’s
rights and protection, working with
parents, leading private and public
schools, agencies of government, local
and international bodies and having been
in the trenches with the United Nations
Children’s Fund in the last eight years,
she has come to accept that in any
social intervention, direction and clear-
cut goals are more important than
motion.
Child marriage is condemnable in its
entirety. The destructive impact of child
marriage is already in the public domain.
I have kept wondering and imagining the
best way to curb the menace of child
abuse in Nigeria. As far as I am
concerned, justice has not been served
in the matter.
Permit me to comment on the setback,
sometime ago, at the Senate on child
marriage. Let me begin by stating the
facts as they were reported, since every
meaningful public discourse must begin
with the facts of issues.
The Senate had embarked on the
amendment of the 1999 Constitution of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It
considered various parts of the
constitution for amendment, including
terms of office of elected officers and
autonomy of local government authority.
Also, the Senate considered for
amendment certain provisions of
Sections 26 to 32 of the constitution,
which deal with citizenship. Controversy
began when the members of the Senate
considered Section 29, which deals with
renunciation of citizenship for
amendment. Section 29(1) provides, “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.”
Section 29(4) (a) and (b) provides, “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 Senate voted to remove the
latter, that is, Section 29(4)(b) and the
vote was successful in favour of removal.
Senator Ahmed Yerima of Zamfara raised
an objection on the ground that the
removal of the provision was ‘un-
Islamic,’ citing Second Schedule, Part 1,
Item 61 of the constitution, known as
‘Exclusive Legislative List,’ which states
‘the formation, annulment and
dissolution of marriages other than
marriages under Islamic law and
Customary law including matrimonial
causes relating thereto.’ The Senator
mobilised certain like-minds in the
Senate and got the amendment put to
vote again and those who had earlier
supported the removal could not muster
the two-thirds majority votes required to
seal the removal. By two-thirds majority
votes, Section 29(4)(b) remains in the
constitution.
Section 9(2) of the Constitution provides,
“An Act of the National Assembly for the
alteration of this Constitution… shall not
be passed in either House of the
National Assembly unless the proposal is
supported by the votes of not less than
two-thirds majority of all the members
of that House and approved by
resolution of the Houses of Assembly of
not less than two-thirds of all the
states.”
Now, flowing from the foregoing facts,
the issue before the Senate was not
child’s rights or child marriageable age
of the Nigerian child. That Section 29(4)
(b) has always been part and parcel of
the 1999 Constitution of the Federal
Republic and the Senate has not passed
a new law legalizing child marriage as it
is being widely circulated.
That in furtherance to the immediate
paragraph, the 1999 Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria has never
legalised child marriage. The Child Rights
Act, passed into law in July 2003, which
by virtue of Section 12 of the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria is the domestication of the
United Nations Convention on the Rights
of the Child, 1989 is the foundational
law today, recognised by the
constitution, relating to child rights in
Nigeria and the Act has criminalised
Child Marriage in Nigeria.
That in all matters relating to children in
Nigeria, the provisions of the Child
Rights Act, 2003 supersedes the
provisions of all other enactments on
children and other matters by virtue of
Section 274 of the Child Rights Act,
2003.
For the Child Rights Act to be enforced
in the 36 states of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria, the Houses of Assembly of
each state must pass (domesticate) it
into law. Considering the fact that most
of the matters relating to children are
under concurrent legislative list and that
as at today, 24 states of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria have passed the Act
into state Laws, the 12 states that are
yet to pass the Act into Law are: Enugu,
Kaduna, Kano, Sokoto, Kebbi, Borno,
Yobe, Gombe, Adamawa, Bauchi, Katsina,
and Zamfara.
By virtue of Second Schedule, Part 1,
Item 61 of the constitution, known as
Exclusive Legislative List, which states
the areas the National Assembly can
make laws on to include, ‘the formation,
annulment and dissolution of marriages
other than marriages under Islamic law
and customary law including matrimonial
causes relating thereto,’ the best option
of stakeholders in the life of the child is
to put pressure on the state
governments of the northern states,
which have not passed the Child Rights
Act into the state laws to do so. As it is,
it appears the National Assembly does
not have power to legislate on the issues
relating to the formation, annulment and
dissolution of marriages contracted
under Islamic Law and Customary Law.
In the alternative, stakeholders should
agitate for the amendment of Second
Schedule, Part 1, Item 61 of the
constitution, to read ‘the formation,
annulment and dissolution of marriages.’
Though the Child Rights Act, 2003 is not
a perfect piece of legislation, it has gone
a long way in providing a formidable
legal and social frameworks for the
protection of the rights of the Nigerian
child in the spirit of the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child,
1989 and African Charter on the Rights
and Welfare of the Child.