Before I begin to explain, I would like to do a quick disclaimerFemi b loves equality amongst everyone. She is not a hater of any gender!!!! I am not a man hater neither do I burn bras. I do love men and Nigerian men top the list once a while. I just only like to stand for equality ..especially gender equality.
Ok, this fuss started when i had to do some research for class on Compressed Natural gas for cars...boring u might say but believe me thats the way forward in the next 20 years.... Anyway the research was extremely boring that I later found myself reading the Nigerian constitution....(lol wouldn't that be from frying pan to fire?) Well, to my surprise it was an interesting read because by the time I was half way through it..I was mad.It seems those who wrote the constitution completely forgot women existed in Nigeria. I mean, it was so gender specific...obviously gearing towards men, that I wondered what happened to all the female lawyers????
Every line included "his", "he", "him" and I wondered if in Nigeria, there were only 140 million men. Also there was a part in it that said a woman can become a Nigerian citizen if her husband is Nigerian and they completely left out the part of the reverse. Meaning if a Nigerian woman married a man......would she have the same rights? ..as that was completely eliminated from the constitution.Now people can say oh Femi b..your own too much...you are reading too much meaning into it...ahah even the bible says "man"kind and 'son" of God...does it mean they have neglected women? Well my response to that is 'when you have men writing things, there is usually a bias as to how they tell it i.e using he, him, mankind..etc and it is left for we women to correct and check it. I repeat ...what happened to all the female lawyers that study this constitution, in fact, I would call my sister tomorrow
I even went as far as looking at the United States constitution to find out if it had the same thing since the Federal republic of Nigeria is kinda modeled after the United States system. Well my findings were different..it had "people", "individual", "person" and was never gender specific.Now my thing is if they say they really want participation from women in government, they should first start my removing all gender specific grammar from the constitution and then we can proceed from there. Below are some excerpts from the Nigerian constitution 1999, and see if I am making too much fuss about the whole thing
.1) Subject to the provisions of section 28 of this Constitution, a person to whom the provisions of this section apply may be registered as a citizen of Nigeria, if the President is satisfied that -
(a) he is a person of good character;
(b) he has shown a clear intention of his desire to be domiciled in Nigeria; and
(c) he has taken the Oath of Allegiance prescribed in the Seventh Schedule to this Constitution.
(2) the provisions of this section shall apply to-
(a) any woman who is or has been married to a citizen of Nigeria; or
(b) every person of full age and capacity born outside Nigeria any of whose grandparents is a citizen of Nigeria.
There is also a part that says any woman that is married has reached full age..in other words..if a man marries a 9 year old girl, she has reached "full age" and is liable to vote???? weird isnt it.
(4) For the purposes of subsection (1) of this section.
a) "full age" means the age of eighteen years and above;
(b) any woman who is married shall be deemed to be of full age.
I thought this was very interesting and i thought i should share. Am I being to fussy or what?
http://www.nigeria-law.org/ConstitutionOfTheFederalRepublicOfNigeria.html
32 comments:
First! For the first time, I'm first! Ain't that grand!
Well, the Nigerian constitution obviously is one error-filled document that needs review as badly as a sinner needs Jesus. As per the gender thing, i never actually thought abt it that way but for once i feel u have a point there. True, something needs be done abt the constitution. Come to think of it, we've never really had a real constitution that was truly written by the people of Nigeria. I don't think u're fussy.
Lol @ u readin the constitution out of boredom.
I was gonna give them the benefit of the doubt n say maybe the use of 'he' in the constitution is synonymous to the way 'man' is used as a general term for humans..but then u said the US constitution uses 'people' instead of 'he' n that changed my mind..as at 1999 women were very much in the forefront of things, so i really wonder why it hasnt been moderated..
As for a girl becomin a woman when she gets married, i remember doin somn similar in Commercial Law, it was slightly shockin. Its not only the Nigerian constitution that agrees to that.
I dunno y i like changin what i read o, pls scratch the 'girl becoming a woman' thing i said..
**a woman that is married has reached full age is what i meant to say..lol
FEMI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU HAD A COPY OF THE CONSTITUTION WITH YOU IN CLASS?????????????????????????
na wa o!
I was just about to talk about how the Bible uses the male gender too..when I saw that you commented on that too!
Femi... well, i rest my case
nawa o...
i wonder who came up with the constitution..probably some men old enuff to be my grandfather..lol...
so how we go change this constitution now..cuz am also not feeling this..
well, for the sakes of "benefit of the doubt", i would say that it has never been edited. The american constitution has been edited quite a few times after all the protests by women and black people. So i would assume that the nigerian constitution is still the same as the first time it was written.
That being said, someone needs to go correct some terms in there, because with or without that constitution, women are doing things in the givernment and i dont even think the government remembers they have a constitution.
So yeah call ur sis! lol.
i have never read the nigerian constitution, i once made an effort to buy one with the intention of reading it but that never happened. there are a lot of things left out of the nigerian constitution that you cant even imagine. good example, the fact u pointed out about it skipping what happens when a nigerian woman marries a non-nigerian.
is it a constitution or a book with words that could be a substitute for firewood in winter?
Gbengasile
Hate to burst you bubble but u were not really first on the topic post.lol i posted it twice, this is the second one.
for once? u think i have a point..meaning that i never had a point before??? eh eh? eh?lol
Burapotato
Well i think thats just silly. then that is not equality. SO if a 9 year old girl marries a 9 year old boy..does it mean they both can vote? and have reached full age?
Seye
Yes the bible used male pronouns why? because it was widely written my men...you guys are too egotistical. U all need to be inclusive. And the years have changed so they need to get on board. If the bible was written now, so many things would be different. and seye, i did not do this in class...it was outside class research.
aloted
first i am going to interview my fellow female lawyers and hear what they have to say, then we can move forward.
Just toluwa
The constitution has been edited several times, they have included newly created states, they have included many things to it. The last time it was modified was i think in 1993. so...
CHief O
DOn't let yardy hear that oh, because I even read that they can denounce you as a citizen..they can divorce you from Nigeria...so don't say out 'sacred' constitution should be burned during winter oh...lol
i believe it should be revised...
cos aside gender bias am sure there are other things that need re-visiting.
ur not too fussy........ its so funny considering they refer to Nigeria as a "She"......
Femi! no u didnt just say the B word. i didnt say the B word either, i was simply stating that in a situation where firewood no do, substitute must surely sub.
i sure wont use it as a substitute firewood that would be unpatriotic(anti-nigerian) i wear my nigerianess up my sleeves.
is it really surprising? I mean, we are talking abt Nigerian men here. There are so many things that women are left out of.
femi, where is my comment!
Mistakenly Removed Comments
clnmike said...
Yeah I can see why this is problematic, if court matters came down to being decided by that conststution than women can forget about it.
November 11, 2008 7:16 PM
Bumight said...
this is largely cultural.
In our culture, a man takes a wife from another village, and brings her to his own village and she becomes a part of it. I think that was why the constitution does not make a provision for a woman who marries a foreigner, she is deemed as part of his country now.
Also, when a girl gets married, she is now thought to be a woman. all the respect that comes with being a woman is accorded to her irrespective of her age. In some cultures, a married woman ties a long wrapper instead of the short ones single women tie.
when u're married in naija, people expect you to start wearing iro and buba instead of jeans.
I'm not saying that these things are right, I'm just trying to get into the cultural context of it. Now things are largely changing, so we can expect change to come if people press for change.
November 11, 2008 7:41 PM
You are not being fussy...It is actually aggravating to feminists like myself! Damn we need to re-write it o
Femi B, which do I comment on out of your double posts?
Well, I think the Nigerian constitution was written in haste by those who had no business in constitutional engineering. Thats why it was imposed on us by the military. We need a complete overhaul of the system and replace with a 3-page constitution with Federalism as its ideology.
God bless Nigeria!
I can find just about any body. I'm just that great!
you sef . i dont know what to say to you...are we actually getting ready to drag that electoral position with mr dapo.. juz kiddin.
-I guess we have to put the Nigerian constitution in the context of time. It was written rather hurridly in a time when women's rights in Africa in general were almost non-existent.
-I think the entire constitution needs to be revised. I was going through some of it for my thesis and I saw alot of the things you pointed out
-If only our female politicians would spend more time on things like this, as opposed to indecent dressing bills!
hey babes! im making some changes to my thesis, will send you the final draft as soon as Im done! and ill tell you where im from when i email you:-)
it has does, update biko nu!
Well, I can see your point but like NDQ said that thing was written 1.) at a point when gender equality had not gained momentum in Nigeria 2.) very hurriedly after Abdulsalam Abubakar had the leadership of the country thrust upon him unceremoniously.
There's been a huge clamour for a review over the years though, so if Nigerian women want anything done about the gender-specific wording then you should join the crusdade, and push your views. Really nice blog though...in a very un-aesthetic way (I joke) lol
The Naija constitution obviously has more than a few errors. But wait oh, what's the point of the constitution sef? Whether it has 'he' or 'she' written, nobody follows it anyway. The people that wrote the law don't even uphold it.
Femi, It's not just Naija oooh, even the UK just made some changes as recently as 2006. It's just the old school mentality, but things are changing!
Don't worry, someone will soon change it...maybe you (or me)laffs. That's if the "change- resistive" mentality is bent sha!
lemme me check the Zimbabwean Constitution...ooops its undergoing changes to include a Prime Minister and his 2 underdogs...still lemme check
well, well, the last constitution of 2000, says person, but this person is just assumed to be a 'he'
eg:A person born outside Zimbabwe on or after the appointed day but before the date of commencement of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No.14) Act, 1996, shall be a citizen of Zimbabwe by birth if—
(a) his father or, in the case of a child born out of wedlock, his mother is at the time of his birth—
Agree with you on the gender thing, Nigeria has induced gender disparities and then at some point they call for increased female participation in government? How exactly should that happen?
Disagree with you as regards the bible though; think the bibles' usage of 'he, his, mankind' is not gender specific, think it encompasses both genders.
ur blog is simply amazing...I LOVE NIGERIAN BLOGGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
UPDATE now. ok i dey beg u. i'll mail u some peppersoup(wink wink) its scranton, PA right. by the way this is not a bribe just in case u think it is.
abi YaraSlow's greyhounds don reach Scranton?
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