The Speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Abdulmalik Sarkindaji, has explained his decision to sponsor the marriage of about 100 girls from his Constituency in Mariga Local Government Area of the state. He said the initiative is driven by his genuine concern for the parents of the girls.

The Speaker explained that he decided to take responsibility for the marriage expenses of these girls out of sympathy for their parents, some of whom are deceased. He dismissed the misconception that the girls are being forced into marriage against their will.

In a statement released by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communications, Mallam Shamsudeen Lawal Binaira, in Minna on Sunday, the Speaker clarified that over 50% of the girls have suitors but their parents lack the resources to meet the marriage expenses required by their customs and traditions. The other category comprises girls who have lost their parents to insecurity in the area and have no one to finance their weddings.

“The majority of these girls are orphans who have lost their parents, including children of our gallant vigilantes who lost their lives to bandits and have no one to finance their weddings despite attaining marriageable age with someone ready to marry them,” the statement said.

Shamsudeen further explained that “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 their parents and relatives do not have the means to marry them out.”

According to Hausa tradition, a girl cannot be married off without being accompanied by some essential needs to make her comfortable in her husband’s house, such as room furniture, including a bed, mattress, and kitchen utensils. The Speaker has agreed to shoulder this responsibility and relieve the parents of this burden. Their parents have been postponing the marriage due to lack of resources, and the Speaker has decided to take over the responsibility.

This is one of many gestures that the Speaker has extended to the people of his Constituency who are in need. There is no motive behind this other than to relieve the parents of the burden.

Before arriving at this decision, the Speaker embarked on wider consultations with the immediate parents who are alive, relations of the orphans among them, religious leaders, and other critical stakeholders in the area.

It is noteworthy that the Speaker recently offset the fees for this year’s Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination for no fewer than 100 candidates from his Constituency in Mariga Local Government Area of the state. In addition to this, all the 100 candidates enjoyed free training for Computer-Based Test (CBT) to enable them to get acquainted with the knowledge and use of computers before the JAMB examinations.

Furthermore, 137 indigent students from Mariga have so far benefited from the Speaker’s scholarship program into various higher institutions of learning. All the successful candidates in the just-concluded JAMB examination will enjoy free sponsorship in their University education as part of the Speaker’s educational program for youth in his Constituency.