A group of teenage actors and actresses has given the Senate a 10-day ultimatum to apologise over its recent resolution on early marriage.
The children, who featured in the production of the film, Yerima, Diary of a Child, warned that if the Senate failed to accede to their demand, they would embark on an indefinite hunger strike.
Addressing journalists in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Tuesday, the children, under the aegis of One Child Team, also urged the Senate to revisit its resolution on child marriage in order to abolish the section of the constitution backing it.
Their team leader and lead character in Yerima, Diary of a Child, Pascaline Ogbuli, said the group, comprising children from across the country, was opposed to the child marriage law in Nigeria.
The 13-year-old Ogbuli, flanked by others, who featured in the 82-minute film, which highlighted the evils of child marriage, said they would embark on hunger strike to attract local and international attention to the plight of the “voiceless” Nigerian children.
She said, “We, the Nigerian children, demand a national apology from the Senate for belittling our rights and willfully deliberating and considering the stamping of early child marriage law in Nigeria.
“We demand public apology in all the national dailies within the next 10 days, otherwise we shall embark on an indefinite hunger strike to draw local, national and international attention to our plight as voiceless Nigerian children.
“If we die telling our leaders that our education and our future count more than an early marriage, so be it. To all the leaders, who support this barbaric law and to all that ought to speak out loud against it but are keeping quiet for fear, or for whatever reason, if we die, our blood shall be demanded of you and your generations.”
She added that by its resolution on child marriage, the Senate had disappointed Nigerian children, who look up to the members of the upper legislature as role models.
Source: Punch
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