Senator Kabiru Marafa
| credits:
| credits:
In this interview with JOHN ALECHENU, Senator Kabiru Marafa (ANPP, Zamfara), speaks about violence in politics and the raging controversy about underage marriage
Do you subscribe to violence in politics?
Nigeria is a religious country; hardly
can you meet 10 people and find one free thinker. Many of us are either
Christians or Muslims. When I say this, I am talking about faith. If you
have faith, both religions teach that it is God that gives, it is God
that takes and whatever you see, it is destined by God to happen. Both
religions teach that you have to be your brother’s keeper. When you take
politics to be a do-or-die affair, that is what leads to violence. But
if you believe that what God has planned for the two of us is what is
going to happen at the end of the day, violence will definitely have no
place in our polity. If it is for me, it will come to me, if it is for
you, it will definitely go to you. We need to sit down as a people and
look at ourselves and see where we are getting it wrong.
With our claim to be a multi-religious country, why do we have so much violence in our polity?
To be very honest with you, many things
are wrong with Nigeria. When you look at this issue of religion,
sometimes we should sit down and ask ourselves, ‘are we more pious than
our fathers?’ What was Nigeria like in 1960 and the 70s? What about the
Nigeria of the 80s, 90s and 2000? Definitely, those in the 60s and 70s
feared God more; these people lived peacefully among themselves. I had a
friend in Kaduna, who was the daughter of a minister in the then
Northern Nigeria, the late Angela Dalong. She grew up with the children
of ministers, who were mostly Muslims and she attended Islamiyya School
anytime she was with one of the children of the ministers. If they were
in her house and she had Bible studies, they would follow her; she even
married a Muslim but she lived and died a Christian. None of them
changed their religion, we were more accommodating that time. But now,
when you see people sitting together, they are only united in crime. So,
there are many vices now, cultism, homosexuality, adultery and
corruption all over the place; they are being perpetrated by both
Christians and Muslims. When they come out, they claim to be pious, you
cannot do this, you cannot do that. Let us look back and see where we
missed it. Nigeria is our only country. Look at Europe today, they are
coming together, they were independent nations. They looked at their
situation and felt that coming together was better. If we say at this
point, we want to disintegrate, we can sit down and agree to do it, but I
don’t think it is the best thing. If we must stay together, we must
learn to accommodate our differences. If you are my friend and I visit
you, you must provide a place for me to pray because I pray five times
daily. If you come to my house, I must provide a place for you to pray
if you belong to another religion other than mine.
Why did you vote for the retention of section 29 4(b) in the constitution?
There are two issues here. It is really
surprising when you see people who are supposed to know but they do not
know, refuse to know or choose not to know. The Senate takes this issue
of the constitution amendment with all the seriousness it deserves and
since we started it, we have demonstrated to Nigerians how serious we
are on it. It is amazing when you hear people; professors, lawyers,
people that are supposed to know, turning the whole thing upside down,
saying that the Senate is passing a bill legalising child marriage. That
actually is not what happened. The truth of the matter is that, the
whole brouhaha is about Section 29. Section 29 relates to renunciation
of citizenship and the constitution that we are operating today says in
that section that for anybody to renounce his citizenship, he or she
must be of full age.
Now, because that statement itself is
not too clear, it went further in 29 sub-sections 4 (1a), it went on to
explain what full age means. It says (a) full age means the age of 18
and (b) any married woman is deemed to be of full age. In the wisdom of
the constitution drafting committee, it thought it wise to recommend
that sub-section (b) should be deleted. Some of us felt doing that will
infringe on the rights of some Nigerians because there are some
Nigerians that marry out their daughters at less than 18 years. After
all, the 18 years is the opinion of some people. Others could have their
own opinions. Some of us felt that what we have in the constitution
takes care of everybody in Nigeria.
But the constitution affects us all…? (Cuts in)
The constitution is supposed to be for
everybody in Nigeria; so, everybody has to be comfortable with it for it
to operate perfectly. Those of us, who feel 18 is the age of maturity
or responsibility, have our 18. Those of us (Nigerians), who feel that
14, 15, 16, 17 or 99 is the age of responsibility or maturity, also have
our own. The constitution has taken care of everybody. Trouble started
on the floor when some people felt that why should somebody say that
that section should remain as it is. With due respect to all Nigerians,
we must learn to accommodate one another. You cannot define yourself and
define others by any stretch of imagination. Most Muslims believe in
it, if you look at all our holy books, all of them believe in that.
Those that have 18, I don’t see any big deal in this thing. I don’t see
why people should take to the streets over this. You have your rights, I
have mine; if you want to keep your daughter till she reaches 40 or 50
years, it is left to you, nobody tells you not to do it. He that wants
to marry out his own at 13, 14, 15, 16, you allow him. There are a lot
of cultures. I have given people a lot of examples. One of the benefits
of being in the National Assembly is that you meet people from all nooks
and crannies of this country, and you will learn to appreciate cultures
and values and so on and so forth. You see people (men) tying wrapper
to the National Assembly chamber, they tie it in a very elegant manner,
why? It is their culture. I cannot tie wrapper, if I tie wrapper and
come to the chamber with it tomorrow, my people will recall me. It is
not my culture but for God’s sake, I cannot say that those people tying
wrapper to the chamber should be barred from coming to the Senate. The
Senate recognises traditional dressing. Once it is traditional, it can
be attested to by people. We respect them.
At what point do you think the confusion crept in?
That incident speaks volumes about our
attitude as Nigerians. We don’t know ourselves, the basis for you to
make a headway with any person or group of people is to first understand
them. I have to know you, you have to know me. You have to know what I
value, what I respect, what I hold dear; then, I know your own, that is
the way we can be friends. You know what I hold dear, so you don’t touch
it. I know what you hold very dear; when it comes to it, I say it is
your own problem. I don’t see how you can define yourself and define me,
you can’t. This is my office; I have the right to dictate what happens
here, if you are not comfortable with it, you go out, simple. Nigeria is
our country; we have more than 250 tribes and so on. What we need to do
is to understand ourselves first. What does an average Hausa man or a
Fulani man, or a Kanuri man or a Nupe man value most? What does the
Yoruba man value most? What does an Igbo man value most? We take them in
their order so that when it comes to their issue, we don’t even
contemplate touching it. When you talk about this issue of puberty in
Islam, it is in our Holy Books, that is the way it is; so, who are you
to come and change it for me? You can’t! Hold your own view. When I
argue with you on your own view, it becomes something else.
0 Comments