18th
May, 2024
PRESS
RELEASE:
MINISTER UJU WILL HEAR FROM OUR LAWYERS – MURIC
As
the Minister for Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, denied the withdrawal of the
court case involving the proposed marriage of 100 orphan girls in Niger State, the
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC, has vowed to challenge the minister’s ex parte
motion.
In
a statement issued on Saturday, 18th May, 2024, the Executive
Director of the human rights group, Professor Ishaq Akintola, accused the
minister of ignoring the criminalities, intimidation, harassment, dehumanization
and oppression to which the Muslim girl child is subjected in the South only
for her to overzealously rush to court to frustrate a genuine effort to rescue
Muslim girls in the North from hunger, starvation and acute poverty.
The
group added :
“The
Minister for Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, yesterday allegedly denied the
withdrawal of the court case involving the proposed marriage of 100 orphan
girls in Niger State. Earlier reports had stated that she had withdrawn her
motion ex parte (https://www.channelstv.com/
“However, if the news emerging from several media outlets
today is true and she has not withdrawn the motion (https://punchng.com/orphan-marriage-case-is-still-in-court-says-minister/),
we of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) have no choice than to dust our files.
Minister Uju will hear from our lawyers, ceteris paribus.
“We
are still wondering if the minister consulted the ministry of justice for
advice before rushing to court? Did she assume she could use the ministry for
her whims and caprices? Is the Ministry of Women Affairs owned by the Nigerian
Government or is it the minister’s personal property?
“If
it belongs to the Nigerian government, then it belongs to the Nigerian people
and Nigerian Muslims are an integral part of the people of Nigeria. Therefore,
can any matter involving the culture and tradition of Northern Muslims be treated
without any consideration for the practice of Northern Muslims in such matters?
“Is
the minister aware that mass weddings are not a new phenomenon in the North? Is
she aware that it has been organized in the North several times by state
governments?
“Where was this minister when several state governments
in the North conducted mass weddings? 1,000 couples were joined in marriage at
the palace of the Emir of Kano in 2012 (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-18072118).
Ex-Governor Ganduje married off 1,111 couples in December 2013 (https://apnews.com/389f2664e07b419889814f37488a81d3).
“The
ancient Islamic city of Kano witnessed another mass wedding on 6th
May, 2019 (https://www.africanews.com/2019/05/06/mass-wedding-in-nigeria-s-kano-state-ahead-of-ramadan//).
Again in 2023, the Kano State Government conducted mass weddings of 1,800 women
on 17th October, 2023 (https://www.africanews.com/2023/10/17/nigerias-kano-state-holds-mass-wedding-for-1800-couples//).
“Even
this year 2024, in Kebbi State, mass weddings were held for 300 couples on 29th
January, 2024. That was four months ago (https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/more-news/663232-kebbi-holds-maiden-mass-wedding-for-over-300-couples.html?tztc=1).
The wedding
was organised by the state government under Hajia Nafisa Idris, wife of the
state governor, through her pet project, Nafisa Nasir Development Foundation
(NANAS).
“Government
is a continuum. There was a Federal Government (FG) in place all these
years when mass weddings took place in several states of Northern Nigeria but FG
did not object to the exercise.
“Is
Minister Uju’s Ministry of Women Affairs another entity outside the Federal
Republic of Nigeria? Is she running a ‘government’ within a government? Or is
she driven by some primordial sentiment? Nigerians want to know. No minister
should behave in such a way as be perceived as a Muslim-hater or anti-Christian.
Uju’s own is just too open.
“The case of the 100 girls in Niger State is even more
pathetic. They were orphans already engaged to their elected suitors but no
parents to spend on their part of the ceremony as required by tradition. All
their parents have been killed by bandits. The original number of orphan girls
was even 270, not 100. The state’s Speaker, Rt Hon Abdulmalik Sarkin-Daji,
could not sponsor all. He therefore offered to sponsor 100 only.
“Now,
why would the minister allow some and stop another? Why should mass wedding be
allowed in Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, etc but disallowed in Niger when the exercise
is among the same Muslims and no single Christian girl or man is among the
couples? Is this not selective justice? Feminists suddenly wake up from their
slumber when Muslim girls decide to follow the culture of Islam.
“It
is quite ‘convenient’ for Minister Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye to show no interest
whatsoever in Muslim girls in the South who are intimidated daily. They are
subjected to criminalities, intimidation, harassment, dehumanization,
oppression, depression and downpression in the hands of Christian government
officials.
“Are
they not ‘women’? Don't they fall within the purview and jurisdiction of the Ministry
of Women Affairs? This minister will not protect Muslim girls under severe religious
persecution in the South but will go out of her way to stop the Muslims of
Northern Nigeria from protecting their girls from rape and prostitution.
“Southern
Muslim girls are disenfranchised at every election as they are disallowed from registration
and voting with hijab on their heads. They are sent out of school for wearing
hijab. But the minister is ‘not aware’ of these horrible violations of the
Allah-given fundamental human rights of Muslim girls in the South.
“Uju’s
ministry will not defend oppressed Muslim women who are insulted and harassed
daily in health centres in the South for wearing hijab. They are denied
treatment unless they removed their hijab.
“One pertinent question for the minister, ‘Are girls
who want to marry not better by far than those who hit the clubs daily, take hard
drugs and prostitute openly? Are girls who want to marry men not better by far
than girls who want to marry girls of same sex? Just asking ma.
“Honourable Minister ma, why persecuteth thou our
daughters? Even your alibi of Child Rights Act is irrelevant because the state
governments in the North have already domesticated it to suit the religion of
Islam. So why stir the hornet’s nest?
“We
will not accept Western views and values as benchmark for all. Our mature girls
want to marry men, not women as in lesbianism while our men want to marry
girls, not men as in homosexualism which is being promoted by the West. It is a
pity that a Nigerian ministry which is expected to serve the interest of
Nigerians has elected to do the bidding of the imperialists.
“In view of the fact that the original number of orphan
girls was 270 and the Speaker could only sponsor 100, we hereby request that
the Niger State Government should gracefully and compassionately sponsor a mass
wedding for the remaining 170 girls at a date not too distant.
“Perhaps
Minister Uju does not understand the full implications of what she has done.
Nigerian Muslims desire to fulfill a religious obligation, namely, marrying off
their mature daughters but the minister chose to stop them by going to court.
In essence she has challenged Nigerian Muslims and she wants to force them to
follow Christo-Western culture. It will never happen. Minister Uju will hear
from our lawyers.”
#100GirlsMassWedding
#MinisterLeaveMuslimGirlsAlone
Professor
Ishaq Akintola,
Founder/Executive
Director,
Muslim
Rights Concern (MURIC).
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