Nigeria: Law planned to target underage marriage

By Rafiu Ajakaye

LAGOS, Nigeria

A bill to rein in indiscriminate polygamy, forced marriage, and easy divorce, targeting the practice of underage marriage, will be introduced by a prominent Muslim leader in a key northern Nigerian state, according to remarks by the emir of Kano released Monday.

“The law will set up what Islam says about the minimum age of marriage, it will outlaw forced marriages, it will make domestic violence illegal, it will put in the conditions that you must fulfill before you can marry a second wife,” said Muhammadu Sanusi II, the emir and a former Central Bank governor.

Speaking late Sunday at a memorial for 20th century Muslim scholar and diplomat Isa Wali, Sanusi said the bill is being worked on and would soon be submitted to the parliament of the northern Kano state, where the emir wields considerable influence as the foremost Muslim and traditional leader.

“It will introduce protection for divorced women, it sets out the responsibilities of a father beyond producing the child and the role of the court in taking care of children. It is a very big one because the law ranges from consent to marriage, from maintenance to divorce, from the maintenance of children to inheritance,” he added.

Sanusi said the northern region is plagued by men marrying multiple wives and fathering dozens of children they are unable to care for, leaving them stranded on the streets as easy recruits for terrorist movements.

“We have all seen the economic consequence of men who are not capable of maintaining one wife marrying four, producing 20 children, not educating them, leaving them on the streets to end up as thugs and terrorists,” he explained.

Such legislation is capable of having ripple effects outside Kano, the economic hub of Nigeria's northern region and its most populous state, which often sets the pace in several facets of life across the mostly Muslim region.

Like the influential Sultan of Sokoto Sa'ad Abubakar, the supreme head of Nigerian Muslims, many see Emir Sanusi as a reformer whose deep knowledge of Islam and exposure offer him an opportunity to push much-needed reforms in the country's north.