Child marriage: Stop stoking religious war, Arewa youths warn Senators
By Soni Daniel ABUJA — Upset by Senate bid to peg official marriage age in Nigeria at 18, northern youths, yesterday, lashed out at the lawmakers, warning them not to stoke the embers of religious war over the controversial legislation. The Senators had last week voted in favour of amending the Nigerian Constitution to set the marriage age at 18, a decision that was promptly challenged by former Zamfara governor, Ahmed Yerima, who described the decision of the lawmakers as anti-Islam. Apparently joining forces with Yerima, who also initiated Sharia in his state when he was governor, Arewa youths asked the Senators to desist from taking action on the matter so as not to further heat up the polity along religious, ethnic and political lines and create avoidable cold war. The President of the Arewa Youth Forum, Alhaji Gambo Gujungu, said in a statement in Abuja, yesterday, that the Senators had missed the point in amending the law and exposed themselves as people who were confused on what...