The Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II on Tuesday took a public stand against child marriage as he called for the nation to set an appropriate marriage age in order to put a stop to child marriages.
The Emir, while addressing a conference of Northern Muslims Religious Leaders Forum on Primary Health care in Kano explained that the reproductive health challenges associated with child marriage is grave enough to discourage the practice
Sanusi maintained, “I believe the time is ripe to take a stand on this age long practice of early marriage, and coincidentally we subscribed to Malikiyya school of thought like Morocco, Malaysia and Egypt who had since pegged marriage age to 17, 19 and 18 respectively”.
The Emir noted that a woman’s role in the house is demanding and such roles could not be properly handled by a child bride. He urged that young girls should be alloed to reach a ripe age, mentally and physically before they are sent off with an husband.
During the conference, the Emir also frowned at the tradition of polygamy stating that “most of those who engage in this practice do not have the necessary economic power to support himself”.
He further explained: “in the past, cities like Kano, Katsina, Aghadez, and Timbuktu hold economic power of the Sahel region, and this economic prospect had since shifted to coastal cities around the globe”.