….we are not forcing them into marriage”
By: Godwin John, Minna
The speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly Hon Abdulmalik Sarkindaji, on Sunday explained why he decided to sponsor the marriage of about 100 girls from his Constituency in Mariga local government area of the state to get married to their long standing suitors.
He said that the decision to take responsibility to foot the bills for the marriage of these girls was borne of his sympathy for the parents, some of whom are dead.
Reacting to misconception in some quota that the girls are being giving out in marriage against their wish, the speaker in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and communications, Mallam Shamsudeen Lawal Binaira in Minna on Sunday dismissed the insinuation that the girls who are in two categories are being giving out in marriage against their wish, stressing that over 50 percent of these girls though have suitors, their parents have no resources to meet their marriage expenses as required by their customs and traditions.
“The other categories are those that have lost their parents to insecurity in the area and have nobody to finance their weeding even though they have their suitors”.
Shamsudeen explained further that “Majority of these girls are orphans who have lost their parents, including children of our galant vigilantes who lost their lives to bandits and nobody to finance their weeding despite attaining marriage age with someone ready to marry them.
“These girls are not been married out against their will or that their husbands are been forced on them, they have suitors of their choice but only that the parents and relatives do not have the means to marry them out.
Shamsudeen disclosed further that “according to the tradition of Hausa, you cannot marry out a girl without accompanying her with some essential needs to make her comfortable in her husband house like room furnitures, such as bed, mattress, kitchen utensils among others.
“That is what these girls are lacking and that is the responsibility the speaker agrees to shoulder and relief the parents of such burden. Their parents have been postponing the marriage for lack of resources and the speaker decided to take over it”.
According to him, this is one of many gestures that the speaker has extended to the people of his Constituency who are in dear need and there is motive behind this other than to relieve the parents of the burden.
He pointed out that before arriving at this decision the speaker embarked on a wider consultations with the immediate parents who are alive, relations of the orphans among them, religious leaders and other critical stakeholders in the area.
It could be recalled that the speaker recently off-set the fees for this year’s Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination for no fewer than 100 candidates from his Constituency in Mariga local government area of the state.
In addition to this, all the 100 candidates enjoyed free training for Computer Base Text (CBT) to enable them get acquainted with the knowledge and the use of computer before the JAMB examinations.
“In addition to this 137 indigents students from Mariga have so far benefited from the Speaker’s scholarship programme into various high institutions of learning.
“Again all the successful candidates in the just concluded JAMB examination will enjoy free sponsorship in their University education as part of the Speakers educational programme for youth in his Constituency”, he added.
