Emir of Kano cautions against flippant polygamy, underage marriages

The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II says men should realise there is no compelling need whatsoever for them to marry more wives of they know they cannot afford to cater for them properly.He asked them to plan so as to make life as simple as possible.

The emir who made the call l during a two-day workshop in Kano, on “Strengthening the capacity of religious leaders on maternal and child health, “ organised by the Northern Muslim Religious Leaders Forum on Primary Care expressed concern over unplanned marriages embarked upon by many Muslims, which according to him was one of the reasons why some parents couldn’t cope up with taking good care of their wards.

“Hence we have children roaming our streets and later become drug addicts. This must be stopped. I strongly suggest that we must work harder together to put a stop to this menace, “ he added.

Citing history of the Northern parts of Nigeria, he argued that, “When the Sahelian regions were boasting of wealth and affluence, our forefathers had all the opportunties to marry as many as four wives, some three and some two. That time you would find a family having 20 or more children.

As at that time feeding and health care delivery were not too much a burden to our people. But when things changed with the coming of the colonial masters and businesses turned to waterside societies so many things have changed. “

According to him, things are no longer as they were before, hence the need in changing in our lifestyles. “But unfortunately only few of us understand this reality, “ he challenged.

On early marriage Sanusi argued that, it was high time people understood that under age marriage should critically be viewed again. According to him; “If a girl is underage and after sometime, she delivers how do you think she can take care of herself talk less of her baby?

It is good for our learned scholars to sit down and come up with what should be the minimum age for a woman to get marriage.
In Morocco for example they are the followers of Maliki School, they set aside minimum age for marriage at 18 years old, Egypt is 16 years and Malaysia is 19 years,” Sanusi reasoned.

He therefore called on all responsible stakeholders to come up with what should be the minimum age for marriage based on people’s lifestyle and other considerations.

He said before things could change for better in the society pertaining to maternal and child health care, people and those responsible must go to the root cause of the problem.

Sanusi was also harsh on those men who divorce their wives without taking care of the children just as he called on the authorities to evolve special punishment for the perpetrators.
“We must do something serious about this,” he said