We’re ripe for marriage, say would-be Niger mass wedding brides

Some of the brides intended by Niger state speaker for the proposed mass wedding of 100 orphaned girls in Mariga Local Government Area of Niger State have said that, “we are ripe for marriage”.

Recall that the Niger state Speaker had confirmed to journalists who reached out to him for further clarification that the hands of 100 female orphans who lost their parents in banditry attacks in Mariga Local Government Area would be given out in marriage.

Meanwhile, Two days after the information became public, the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye blazed with anger on national news platforms over what she perceived as underage marriage and announced that the Ministry has filed for court injunction to stop the Speaker from marrying off the orphans.

Responding to the development between the speaker and the Minister, one of the brides, Hussaina Abdullahi, said she is 21 years old and was not being forced into any marriage as she decided to get married by herself. She explained that she had desired marriage since she was 19 but her parents were killed by bandits and that halted her wedding plans.

Hussaina said: “I am not being forced into this marriage. I decided on my own to get married. I already have someone I want to get married to. So when they said we should submit names, I presented him and submitted my name.

“My parents are dead. They were killed in different bandits attacks in our community, and that is why there were no funds to conduct the ceremony, which is why we delayed it till today,”

Twenty years old Habiba Mohammed, who also lost her parents to bandits attacks, said she was not forced into the marriage as she presented the man she wanted to get married to before she was allowed to submit her name.

“Many of the girls who came forward to submit their names lost their parents to banditry and have been trying to do petty trading to help themselves.

“Many of us are already into relationships and we were saving money for our marriage,” she said.

A parent to one of the would be brides, Amina Umar, said her daughter is already 23 years old and has been worried about getting married since their girls usually get married at 18 years. She lamented that lack of financial support led to the delay in her daughter getting married.

Umar said: “I thank God and the Speaker, who decided to sponsor this event in partnership with other well to do individuals. Since the father of my children was killed by bandits, we have been planning to get them married but could not.

“My daughter is already 23 years old, and based on our customs, we get them married between the ages of 18 and 19, but lack of funds and the liabilities we have taking care of the family stopped us from getting her married early.

“It isn’t that she does not have a spouse. We had no money to fund the wedding. We eventually got succour through this intervention.

“We thank and appreciate them for this. We are not the only ones who benefitted. There are others too in similar situations.”

One of the grooms, Saminu Manu, who did not state his age, said he and his prospective bride had been in love since they were children and their relationship blossomed till date.

He said that his parents had been expecting them to get married but lack of funds led them to postpone the wedding for a long time.

Manu said: “The intention to get married has been with us for a long time now but we just did not have the funds.

“My fiancée has no mother or father. She lost her father to bandits when they attacked our village. The mother died shortly after the incident. So there is no one to buy her wedding things for her and that has kept us from taking our relationship to the next level.”

The District Head of Kudun Mariga in Mariga Local Government Area, Shehu Iliyasu Mariga, said that underage marriage is not allowed in the local government area, as they have been warned against it and asked to report any parent who engages in it to the Emir of Kontagora.

He said majority of the girls who were slated to get married have lost both parents while others have only one parent. According to him, it is mostly the fathers who are killed by bandits but hypertension and high blood pressure developed by the mothers due to the burden of family responsibilities have led to the death of several mothers.