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By Charles Mgbolu Nollywood actress Stella Damasus and Senator Yerima were both guests on 'The Stream' a programme aired on International News Network Al Jazeera. They went head-to-head on the controversial issue of Child marriage. [caption id="attachment_412368" align="alignnone" width="412"] *Stella, Yerima[/caption] Senator Yerima re-affirmed that he married his fourth wife when she was 14 years and they both now have a son together. He said he finds nothing wrong with his actions, claiming that his 14 year-old wife had reciprocated his feelings. Stella Damascus counter-argued, citing several Child rights charters signed by Nigeria concerning marriage and the rights of the girl-child. She insisted that those breaking the agreements should be labelled criminals and prosecuted. Watch the rest of their engaging argument here...  

BY OUR REPORTERS Many days after the news broke, reactions to the proposed Child Marriage Law show no signs of letting up. From clerics to educationists, lawyers and of course, activists, opinions are divided. While some believe the customs and traditions of  northern senators agitating for  child marriage  should be taken into consideration, the majority have outrightly condemned such a move. Here are what experts think about the Senate's controversial endorsement: We must bow down to the culture and traditions of  our people— Ebenezer Babatope I believe before the National Assembly would approve such a bill, they must have taken into consideration the customs and traditions of the North. But I don’t support child marriage in any way. [caption id="attachment_226353" align="alignleft" width="175"] Ebenezer Babatope[/caption] I am a Christian and Christianity is against such. How can a girl be given out in marriage? A girl is not mature enough for suc...

BY EBUN SESSOU Barrister Itoro Eze-Anaba, a human rights activist, explains the legal implications of child marriage.    What is your opinion on the 1999 Constitution which says 'any woman who is married shall be deemed of full age?' Section 29(4)(b) of the Constitution is against all reason and practical wisdom. Are we saying any child that is married has suddenly become an adult based solely on the fact that she is married? [caption id="attachment_405254" align="alignright" width="288"] Barrister Itoro Eze-Anaba[/caption] This is wrong because a child is a child. We should ask why old men like taking young girls as wives. Children of the rich are given the opportunity to develop, go to school up to university level and at times postgraduate level before getting married. In many instances, it is only children of the poor who suffer from early marriage, are withdrawn from school and given out in marriage to men old enough to be their fathers and g...

FOR as long as I can remember, delusion, self-interest and greed have motivated not only the Nigerian government but the Nigerian people who often respond to the calculating, preying actions of their leaders not with outrage, but with the cunning of those who will profit by supporting what we all know to be wrong. However, today I am proud of the outpouring of reactions following the passage of the Senate’s Bill making the age of consent in Nigeria 13 (in most European countries it is 16 and even in Spain, where it is still 13, activists, public figures, fight tirelessly to have it raised). Child marriage has been legalised in Nigeria, everything our mothers and grand mothers have fought for, to guarantee us a right to education, a right to determine and decide for ourselves our path in life, has been swiftly destroyed. One question remains: Where are the female members of the Senate? Nigerian women need to know they deserve better. When a female House of Representatives member is inte...

By SOLA OGUNDIPE AT 13, Hafsat Auwalu was married. At 14, she became pregnant. When it was time for her to be delivered of her baby, Hafsat was taken to the nearby primary healthcare facility where she laboured for hours, but the baby would not come out. There was a problem. Hafsat is frail in stature with a small pelvis. Her pelvis was too narrow for the head of the baby to pass through.  She pushed and pushed, but the baby’s head was lodged in the narrow birth canal. The pain was excruciating. [caption id="attachment_405891" align="alignnone" width="412"] Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zainab Maina, Executive Secretary of Women Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative, Mrs. Saudatu Mahdi and Mrs. Felicia Onibon from Change Managers International Network, addressing newsmen on constitutional amendment by the Senate [/caption] There was nothing the birth attendants could do. There was no doctor on call and no one in attendan...

By SAM EYOBOKA, SOLA OGUNDIPE, HENRY UMORU & JOSEPH ERUNKE ABUJA— SENATE President, David Mark, yesterday, said proponents of Section 29 (4)(b) in the constitution hid under religious guise to get the section sail through during last week’s clause-by-clause voting in the on-going constitution amendment process. He said it was time Nigerians shunned religion when dealing with sensitive issues if the country must forge ahead. Already, the Christian Association of Nigerian, CAN, has concluded plans to mobilize Nigerians to protest the non-amendment of provisions of the Constitution, just as the Paediatric Association of Nigeria, PAN, has called for immediate reinstatement of the age of marriage to 18 years. Religious sentiment Mark, who said but for religious sentiment that was injected into the voting period, the section in question which tends to give support to underage marriage, would have been completely deleted from the nation’s constitution. [caption id="attachment_405725...

Here is one of the most informed articles since the debate on child marriage broke. It is a trending post on Nasir El-Rufai's Facebook wall. A virus is a small infectious agent replicates only inside the living cells.Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria. Since 1892 when Dmitri Ivanovsky described a non-bacterial pathogen infecting tobacco, about 5,000 viruses have been described in detail. They can be found in every ecosystem on Earth and are the most abundant type of biological entity. Of late, virus have found a heavenly host in the Nigerian social media network. In minutes,a concept can go viral,permeating every corner of the world.This trend can be greatly beneficial, but also deadly dangerous. On this particular occasion I find it dangerous. In the last 48hrs, there has been an outcry on social media about a bill in the Nigerian Senate to legalise child marriage. The bone of contention simply ' Instead, they gave a legislative seal of ...