An important update on this story. “Yerima cannot continue in Senate, says NBA,” by Ifedayo Adebayo for Next, June 11:
The Nigeria Bar Association has urged the Senate to look into the case of Sani Yerima’s child marriage, saying that he cannot continue to sit in the hallowed chamber of the Senate, contributing in the making of laws which he claims do not bind him.
The Bar said attempts being made by some individuals and groups to trivialise Mr Yerima’s disgraceful act are also political.
“We state without any equivocation that the act of contracting any arrangement to satisfy the hedonistic urge of any individual is criminal,” Rotimi Akeredolu, the national chairman of the association, said. “It becomes even more worrisome to note that these people strive to hide under a popular religion which preaches continence.”
The association also berated Mr Yerima’s manner of “clinging to a supposed aspect of his religion, which allows a child barely out of the cradle to warm his bed. The abiding injunctions on honesty, philanthropy and continence, among others, on which all religions stand, are of little significance to this man.”
The very reason for the persistence of behavior like Yerima’s is that it is not a “supposed aspect of his religion,” but an imitation of Muhammad — a “beautiful pattern of conduct” per Qur’an 33:21. Yerima himself has tried to defend his acts on these grounds.
Then, to call child marriage a perverse, disgusting, and predatory act is to say Muhammad did something perverse, disgusting, and predatory. That is the gauntlet that Muslims like Yerima throw down in defending their actions to other Muslims and to non-Muslims afraid of causing offense. The commonly encountered alternative is this: Deny, deny, and deny.
While referring to Mr Yerima’s argument, when he was invited by a child protection agency in Abuja, that he only recognized Sharia law and not whatever the federal law said on his action, the NBA leader said, “The position of the Bar is that this man cannot continue to sit in the hallowed chamber of the Senate, contributing in the making of laws he does not believe in.
“Characters like this man should not be allowed to hide under religion to perpetrate acts inimical to the wellbeing of the citizens of this country, most especially children who must be protected by reasonable adults. The news that a former child-wife was divorced for him to marry a new child, as his fourth wife, in line with what he perceives as his religious obligation, must rile the sensibility of decent people.”…
One would think so.