Edo Women Disaspora Move Against Senator Ugbesia Over His Support for Child-Bride

On Friday, a group, the Coalition Against Child-Marriage, comprising of over 30 organisations and individuals in Nigeria, UK, Italy, USA and Canada and which includes organisations such as Association Against Women Export, Associazione Iroko Onlus, Edo State Women Association, International Federation of Female Lawyers-Edo state branch, Centre  for Privileging Children’s Voices International, Voices of Edo women, as well as Edo State indigenes at home and abroad,  launched a series of radio and T.V. jingles to educate the public and Senator Ugbesia’s Edo Central constituency in particular about the implications of his vote in the Senate against the repeal of section 29(4b) of the constitution, which the group argues,was  a way of endorsing  the practice of child-marriage.

The women group  also reiterated the demands made to the Senator in its second open letter to him requesting that he unveils an acceptable and progressive agenda for the empowerment of women and girls in his Senatorial district as well as his support for women and girls in Edo State and Nigeria at large.

The Coalition said : “declaring a girl under 18 to be an adult once she is “married” implies that any female of whatever age is considered “of full age” as long as she satisfies the prerequisite of being “married.”

“That provision is thus tacitly in support of under-age marriage as girls of whatever age, as young as 9 years or even younger, can then be considered as being of “full age” as long as they are “married.”

“This implication is further grounded by the fact that child-bride practice has been a serious issue in our society and several perpetrators have employed diverse tactics including cultural, traditional and religious doctrines to achieve their perverse desire to legitimise this psycho-medically devastating medieval practice that has been discarded in several civilised societies.

“Thus, Senator Ugbesia’s vote in support of section 29(4b) upheld an ignominious status-quo, which although primarily about citizenship justifies marriage by even two-year olds, since according to the provisions of section 29(4b) “any woman who is married shall be deemed to be of full age.”

A member of the Coalition, Dr. Esohe Aghatise, Executive Director of Associazione Iroko Onlus, said: “ October 11, marks the day the United Nations set aside as the day of the girl-child. This day is important in recognition of the hardships girls face around the world; especially in Nigeria where violence against the girl-child in the form of rape, human trafficking, child prostitution and child-marriage have all become very rampant.”

Other members of the coalition such as  Ms. Pat Abbe, a healthcare practitioner and Ms. Omolayo Omoruyi, a business consultant, also expressed the Coalition stance that they will not relent in their quest to hold Senator Ugbesia accountable for his vote.

The group said it will soon unleash  a series of radio and television jingles in Esan language, pidgin English and English in the media and online to bring worldwide attention to what they described as the Senator’s “anti girl-child stance.”

This is as another member of the Coalition, Dr. Michael Etomi, a medical practitioner and President of the Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas,  stated that the Senator’s “vote is deplorable and injurious to the well being of the girl-child.”  And Dr. Okosun, President of Association Against Women Export added:  “Senator Ugbesia’s stance does not promote the education of the girl-child, which incidentally is the theme of this year’s International Day of the girl-child titled “Innovating for Girls’ Education”.