A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Niger State, Hon. Jonathan Vatsa has criticized the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Uju Kennedy Ohanenye, for threatening the Speaker of Niger State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Abdulalik Sarkindaji with lawsuit over plans to sponsor marriage of over 100 girls.
The Speaker’s plan to sponsor the mass wedding in Niger stoke controversy with a threat of being sued by the Minister of Women Affairs, but Hon. Vatsa, who is a former Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism in Niger State warned Minister to wash off her hands from what bothers on religion and culture of the North.
The proposed mass wedding was to take place in Mariga Local Government Area in Niger State.
Declaring the threat a nullity, Vatsa in an interview with journalists said the minister is fighting a lost battle as the parents of the girls will go ahead and marry out their daughters as planned whether the Speaker is involved or not.
Adding that “the parents have the right to do so under Islamic and Hausa tradition.
The former Publicity Secretary of APC in the state advised the minister not go into issues that she knows nothing about, stressing that “no amount of threats of court action can stop the parents from giving out their daughters in marriage after receiving the necessary supports”.
“Rather than sitting in Abuja and be issuing threat of court action”, Vatsa pointed out that “the minister should have done her investigation first to know if these girls have strained the age of marriage by law or if they were being forced into the marriage before going to the air to threaten the speaker who is merely offering assistance.
“You cannot just sit in an air conditioned office in Abuja and be threatening people without knowing what these orphans are going through after loosing their parents to insecurity and those whose parents cannot afford their marriage expenses even though they have attained the age for marriage.
“Does the minister have any plans for people whom she has never seen nor know their plight or is she trying to encourage prostitution in the area.
“You don’t play politics by interfering with the people’s culture and tradition moreso that these girls have suitors who want to marry them”
According to Vatsa, “as members of one political party, I had expected the minister to get in touch with the speaker and get first hand information about the whole thing and offer her advise where necessary instead of playing to the gallery and going to media to issue threats of court action.
“I am sure the speaker being a trained lawyer is not afraid of going to court. The speaker is not giving the girls out in marriage but just rendering support to the families and there is no law in Nigeria that forbid someone giving an assistance towards marriage that is why I said the minister is fighting a lost battle”.
Vatsa disclosed that the Banditry activities across 12 local government areas of the state has produced over 5,000 orphans, widows and widowers in the state and therefore urged the minister to come to Niger state and see the sufferings of these orphans, majority of whom are girls.
He stated further that as Special Adviser on PPP to the governor, he will be happy to see the minister going beyond issuing threats of court action over marriage of these girls, and come to partner with the state government on how to empower these group of people and other vulnerable children in the state.
Vatsa therefore urged the speaker not to succumb to any threats from any quota to abandoned his people, stressing “the people will feel disappointed if you withdraw your support for them. There is a difference between supporting a marriage and giving out a girl in marriage.”
He maintained that the speaker will let his people down if he decides to back out of the whole marriage plan, adding that the welfare of his people is his primary responsibility as their representative and therefore he should be ready to sink with them.
