The Speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly, Abdulmalik Sarkindaji, stated that he chose to back the marriage of around 100 girls from his area in Mariga Local Government Area due to genuine worries for their parents.
Sarkindaji, on Friday, pledged committed to covering the dowries for the bridegrooms and mentioned that he had acquired all the required materials for the mass wedding.
However, he faced criticism after the decision, with some people suggesting that the girls would be forced into marriage.
The Speaker, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communications, Shamsudeen Binaira, in Minna, the state capital, on Sunday, denied the idea of forced marriage.
He explained that more than 50 percent of the girls, despite having suitors, their parents lack the means to cover their marriage costs as required by their customs and traditions.
“The other categories are those that have lost their parents to insecurity in the area and have nobody to finance their wedding even though they have their suitors.
“Majority of these girls are orphans who have lost their parents, including children of our brave vigilantes who lost their lives to bandits and there is nobody to finance their wedding despite attaining marriage age with someone ready to marry them.
“These girls are not being married out against their will or that their husbands are being forced on them. They have suitors of their choice but only that the parents and relatives do not have the means to marry them out,” he said.
Binaira further explained that “according to the Hausa tradition, you cannot marry out a girl without accompanying her with some essential items to make her comfortable in her husband’s house such as room furniture, kitchen utensils, among others.
“That is what these girls are lacking, and that is the responsibility the Speaker has agreed to shoulder and relieve the parents of such burden. Their parents have been postponing the marriage for lack of resources, and the Speaker decided to take it over,”.
Binaira emphasized that this is one of many gestures that the Speaker has extended to the people of his constituency who, he said, are in dire need, insisting that there is no other motive behind the gesture than to relieve the parents of the burden.
He confirmed that before the Speaker arrived at the decision, he had consulted widely with his constituency, including the immediate parents, relations of the orphans, religious leaders, and other critical stakeholders in the area.
