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 Earlier reports had stated that she had withdrawn her motion ex parte (https://www.channelstv.com/2024/05/17/minister-withdraws-orphan-marriage-suit-against-nassembly-speaker/)
“However, if the news emerging from several media outlets today is true and she has not withdrawn the motion (https://punchng.com/orphan-marriage-case-is-still-in-court-says-minister/), we of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) have no choice than to dust our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.”