Emir of Kano says it's time to peg marriage age in Nigeria

The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II says its time to peg marriage age in Nigeria. Speaking at a conference of Northern Muslims Religious Leaders Forum on Primary Health care in Kano yesterday May 24th, Sanusi spoke strongly against child marriage. According to him, the health challenge faced when a girl is exposed to child marriage is enough reason to discontinue the practice.

"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”. Sanusi added that the role of a woman as a housewife are numerous and highly demanding and hence a girl should be allowed to have attained some level of maturity before she is married off. On domestic violence in marriages, Sanusi said it was not Islamic for men to hit their wives. He added that he had already told his daughters to retaliate if they experience such “I don’t expect my in-law to lay his hand on my daughter, but I have since urged her to retaliate any form of assault from her husband”.