SENATOR Ayo Akinyelure of Ondo State Central Senatorial District may be headed for a gloomy and uncertain
political future in view of his embarrassing support in the votes on the floor of the Uppper Chamber of the National Assembly in Abuja last week for the proposed amendment argued by Senator Ahmed Yerima to allow under-aged married girl-child to decide a preferred nationality under Section 48 (b) of the country’s constitution.
Senator Ayo Akinyelure, a protégé of Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, allegedly committed a breach of the popular trust on the base of which he was voted into the Nigerian Senate on the platform of the Labor Party, by surreptitiously endorsing the extreme sharia agenda of the Islamist former Zamfara State governor, Ahmed Sanni Yerima.
Yerima had rallied the senate into taking a second ballot on the proposed amendment, aimed at determining citizenship status for Nigerians.
Yerima is a public face of the reprobate practice of under-age marriage and harmful religious practices that undermines the realization of the full potentials of the girl-child in the country.
Akinyelure, in complete opposition to the progressive politics of Ondo State and southwestern Nigeria, decided to take side with the “political jihadists” in the senate. Just whose script he was acting was not clear, but many of his constituents in Akure North, Akure South, Ifedore, Idanre, Ondo East and Ondo West Local Governments are up in arms and are now joining the global outrage and petitions drawing attention of the world to the primordial pedophilia tendencies of Akinyelure, Yerima and company.
The unprecedented anger sparked by Akinyelure’s legislative misadventure has never been witnessed since the LP came to power in Ondo State about four years ago.
Ondo State central senatorial electorate said Akinyelure must come back home to Idanre before he disgraces the state.
Yerima, Akinyelure’s political soul mate, is a well known serial violator of young, under-aged women, through contrived religious arrangements. But its remains, however, unknown if Akinyelure subscribes to the practices of marrying young women to rich men in Yoruba land.
The protest sparked by the section 29(4) b of the constitution has gone viral across the world. And it has become the main weekend bug on cyberspace. Former Federal Capital Territory Minister Nasir el-Rufai through his twitter handle condemned the proposed amendment, saying it had nothing to do with religion as convinced by Yerima, but a way for perverts to hoodwink the rational majority.
Prominent Nigerians and human right organisations took to the social media to protest what they described as legalisation of sexual abuse of underage girls.
Even as the protest hit the streets of Lagos and Abuja in condemnation of perceived child abuse enslavement of the girl-child, federal and states, houses of assembly could be seized on Tuesday by protesters who would want the senate to reverse itself.
“The child who could not be trusted to vote until eighteen years of age is now being goaded to marry at age 9 or above,” said an online commentator on Saturday.
Two of the many tweets by a former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, read, “We kid ourselves to think that we can catch up and compete with the rest of the world, when the #GirlChild is constrained.
“I got married at 24, after my first post-graduate. Some think 24 is early but then, I was ready to make sound decisions.”
Nigerian actress, Omoni Oboli, also twitted, “I shudder to think I wouldn’t be who I am today, if some perverts had convinced my parents to marry me off before I turned 18.”
Nollywood actor, Nonso Diobi, stated, “If she can’t vote, then she can’t marry. A female child should be taken to the classroom, not labour room.”
Broadcaster, Mo Abudu, expressed her concerns, saying, “My heart is broken by the news from the Senate on #ChildBrides. This is not the Africa of 2013.”
Below is a list of senators who voted alongside Yerima and Akinyelure:
1. Sen. Abdulmumin M. Hassan (Jigawa South West, PDP)
2. Sen. Abdullahi Danladi (Jigawa North West, PDP)
3. Sen. Adamu Abdullahi (Nasarawa West, PDP)
4. Sen. Ahmed Barata (Adamawa South, PDP)
5. Sen. Akinyelure Ayo (Ondo Central, Labour Party)
6. Sen. Alkali Saidu A. (Gombe North, PDP)
7. Sen. Bagudu Abubakar A. (Kebbi Central, PDP)
8. Sen. Dahiru Umaru (Sokoto South, PDP)
9. Sen. Galaudu Isa (Kebbi North, PDP)
10. Sen. Garba Gamawa (Bauchi North, PDP)
11. Sen. Danjuma Goje Mohammed (Gombe Central, PDP)
12. Sen. Gobir Ibrahim (Sokoto East, PDP)
13. Sen. Gumba Adamu Ibrahim (Bauchi South, PDP)
14. Sen. Hadi Sirika (Katsina North, CPC)
15. Sen. Ibrahim Bukar Abba (Yobe East, ANPP)
16. Sen. Jajere Alkali (Yobe South, ANPP)
17. Sen. Jibrilla Mohammed (Adamawa North, PDP)
18. Sen. Kabiru Gaya (Kano South, ANPP)
19. Sen. Lafiagi Mohammed (Kwara North, PDP)
20. Sen. Lawan Ahmad (Yobe North, ANPP)
21. Sen. Maccido Mohammed (Sokoto North, PDP)
22. Sen. Musa Ibrahim (Niger North, CPC)
23. Sen. Ndume Mohammed Ali (Borno South, PDP)
24. Sen. Sadiq A. Yaradua (Katsina Central, CPC)
25. Sen. Saleh Mohammed (Kaduna Central, CPC)
26. Sen. Tukur Bello (Adamawa Central, PDP)
27. Sen. Ugbesia Odion (Edo Central, PDP)
28. Sen. Umar Abubakar (Taraba Central, PDP)
29. Sen. Usman Abdulaziz (Jigawa North East, PDP)
30. Sen. Ya’au Sahabi (Zamfara North, PDP)
31. Sen. Zannah Ahmed (Borno Central, PDP)
32. Sen. Ahmad Rufai Sani (Zamfara West, ANPP)
33. Sen. Ahmad Abdul Ningi (Bauchi Central, PDP)
34. Sen. Bello Hayatu Gwano (Kano North, PDP)
35. Sen. Ibrahim Abu (Katsina South, CPC)
Some senators did not register to vote, while some abstained.
After the second voting, Yerima tried to get up to thank the Senate Present and his colleagues in an attempt to claim victory, he was shouted down and booed.