Sophia Michaels
Hon Abdulmalik Sarkindaji, the Speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly, has talked about why he sponsored the marriage of about 100 girls from his constituency in Mariga Local Government Area of the state.
The Speaker’s explanation followed claims that the girls were married out against their wishes.
In a statement signed by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communications, Mallam Shamsudeen Lawal Binaira in Minna, the Speaker said over 50 per cent of the girls have suitors but their parents have no resources to meet their marriage expenses as required by the customs and traditions of the area.
According to him, “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”
“The girls are not being married out against their will or that their husbands are been forced on them, but out of sympathy. They have suitors of their choice but only that the parents and relatives do not have the means to marry them out.”
He explained that, according to the Hausa tradition, a girl cannot be married without accompanying her with some essential needs to make her comfortable in her husband’s house such as room furnitures, bed, mattress, kitchen utensils among others.
Saikindaji also said he took the decision after wide consultations with the immediate parents who are alive, relations of the orphans among them, religious leaders and other critical stakeholders in the area.
