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B y Emmanuel Edukugho The Yerima Doctrine: When a girl has seen her menstruation, develops breasts and has pubic hair, she is mature to be married. Not many people would have thought a time would come when paedophilia would be celebrated in Nigeria. But that seems to be the case with the Senate's much-touted bid to legalise child marriage. [caption id="attachment_406021" align="alignnone" width="412"] Senator Ahmed Yerima[/caption] Specifically, the Senate voted in support of a resolution to amend the provisions of Section 29 (4b) of the 1999 Constitution. Section 29 (1) states: “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.” Subsection (4a) states: “Full age means the age of 18 years and above,” while (4b) says: “Any woman who is married shall be deemed to be of full age.” But with the proposed amendment, a married underage girl of 10, 12, 13 ...

By Femi Fani-Kayode Senator and former Governor Ahmed Sani, the Yerima Bakura, has finally had his way. The Nigerian Senate has bowed to his will and agreed to be silent about the age that young girls can get married in Nigeria. What this means once it is followed through and enshrined in our laws and Constitution is that girls that are as young as nine years old, provided they are deemed as having been ‘’physically developed enough’’ by their suitors, could be lawfully bedded and married in our country. That is the sordid level that we have now, as a people and as a nation, degenerated to. I weep for Nigeria and, perhaps more appropiately, I weep for the Nigerian girl-child.   Yet we have no choice but to live with this new reality and to accept it as it is. After all, our representatives in the sacred halls of the Senate were not sensitive enough or ‘’man enough’’ to shoot down the whole thing, to stand firmly against the unholy agenda and to say boldly and firmly that, ‘’come what m...