Following Nollywood actress Omotola
Jolade-Ekeinde’s outcry against child marriage last Saturday, it appears
that stakeholders in the entertainment industry in Nigeria are
determined to ensure that members of the Senate do not succeed in their
plan to legitimise it.
Just before she received an award from
the Silverbird Group at the 2013 Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria pageant
in Yenagoa, the actress had spoken out against the move in the Senate
to legally endorse child marriage in the country.
Even as she was being showered with
praises on social media for taking such a bold stand, foremost filmmaker
and cinematographer, Tunde Kelani and Yeni Anikulapo-Kuti took turns
to lend their voices to the raging debate on the issue.
Kelani, expressed shock that such a
topic should even be considered for debate on the floor of the Senate.
“This is, in fact, a very shocking and embarrassing development. I am a
Yoruba man and it is not common among my people. Not even once have I
seen or heard that girl of 13 years was given out in marriage to a man
old enough to be her father. What the Senate should be talking about is
not how to turn little girls into wives prematurely, but how to give
them quality education,” he said, in a telephone interview with our
correspondent.
Accusing the former Governor Ahmed
Yerima of Zamfara State for interpreting the Islamic scriptures to suit
his selfish purpose, the celebrated filmmaker added, “We have Muslims in
Yorubaland. Why are – the Yerimas – they not thinking of educating
their young daughters instead of giving them out in marriage? Those
Senators ought to realise that female children are also an investment
for the future. They are entitled to good education and not early
marriage.”
In her reaction, Yeni wondered how a
sane man would sleep with an underage girl and still claim that it was
right. She urged Nigerians to rise up to fight the attempt to legalise
child marriage, “The people should take a definite stand against child
marriage. If they continue to keep quiet, they will be taken for
granted. The lawmakers should be made to understand that we voted them
into power and they must listen to us.” She said.
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