Anna Banner (MBGN 2013) To Lead Campaign Against Underage Marriage

The Newly crowned Miss Nigeria has already started to do work which she is expected to dohe ground running:

“These children are not prepared for the tedious demands of Marriage and family life. This kind of law will keep relegating the girl child to the background and will also reduce her chances of being educated in order to liberate herself,” she said.

A couple of days ago, the Nigerian Senate just approved Child Marriage to be a law in the ongoing Constitution amendment in the National Assembly.

Miss Nigeria 2013, Akudo Ezinne Anyaoha, has added her voice to the campaign against Child marriage in Nigeria.

Anna Banner who is a Law Graduate of Abia State University, who has cancelled all her engagements in Lagos to seek audience with the leadership of the House of Representatives to present the petition personally, she described child marriage as a violation of human rights adding that the girl child should be allowed to live out her childhood instead of subjecting her to s*xual and physical abuse.

“Child marriage perpetuates poverty and leads to poor health as children will not only be withdrawn from their peers, but they will have psychological trauma and physical challenges such as Vesico Vaginal Fistula” she said.The young queen who in the next few weeks will launch her pet project is determined to use her office to fight s*xual violence stating that this act is not only harmful to the girl child but also to the family, community and the nation as a whole because it slows down development. “This is the right time for all well meaning Nigerians to come out and speak against this shameful act because it will go a long way to derail the current transformation agenda of the current administration and subsequently place the Nigerian girl far behind her peers across the world”
“I want to also use this medium to urge the House of Representatives to follow the path of honour by rejecting this particular clause during their Clause – to – Clause consideration of the amended part of the constitution” she concluded.
It will be recalled that on the 16th of July 2013, the Senate resolved to alter section 29(a) of the constitution which stipulates that a woman shall not be qualified for marriage until she attains 18 years. The Senate deleted the age specification for women from the draft constitution and left the marriage age open which implies that children can marry.
Signed by Enakeno Oju
Manager Miss Nigeria Organisation/Chaperone to the Queen
21st July 2013