The Nigerian constitution
Believe it or not, there are powerful forces out there who believe the Nigerian constitution does not need to be reformed. My own personal beef is the sexism written into the constitution, such that only women marrying Nigerian men can become citizens. See article 26.2 (a) (Chapter III of the Constitution). It is blatant sexism that a Nigerian woman cannot confer citizenship on her non-Nigerian husband.
Posts
7 comments:
Thanks Jeremy!
I've been searching for an online copy of the Nigerian Constitution.
Now to download.
I notice that non-bloggers can finally leave comments to your posts as well. Cool.
Can I now use my new freedoms to WHINE, COMPLAIN and ask Obokun Close why on earth he doesn't get his own blog? He never leaves one or two line comments but complete epistles, often OFF POINT and even worse, dry.
Surely getting your own blog will allow others to read your wise and eloquent points, without having to analyse what Jeremy is saying. You obviously don't.
whoa! i didn't know that. that's ridiculous! nigeria is such a crazy country
The dramatic irony is that we are still on the same subject of 419 and why Nigerians, their leaders and leaders of the world would miss the point. There is a discrepancy between the perception of our leaders and the reality they face. Pre-independence (with the imposition of alien religion and government) and post-independence (the imposition of alien language and corrupt political illiterate leaders), Nigerians have suffered emotional abuse and their beliefs have become ironic because they are very different or opposite from the reality of their immediate situation, and their intentions are likewise different from the outcome their actions. The Nigerian leaders have limited understanding of the situation. Nigeria’s ministry for women’s affairs has become a casualty of democracy. Neither do the leaders of the world know more about the immediate circumstances or future events of the Nigerian story than the Nigerians themselves.
On this subject, let us recall comments posted on Molara Wood’s blog, http://www.molarawood.blogspot.com/ of Monday November 07 “Queueing to See Achebe” where you referred to the disconnect between Achebe and his country. Achebe is in fact one of the Nigerian men who created women as either rural docile wives or urban whores. In his "Things Fall Apart," Okonkwo's wives dare not talk back to him.
So the irony is completely lost on all those who think Nigerian women are guaranteed equal rights under the Nigerian constitution of 1999 and on the current leaders of the world and the leaders of Nigeria who have failed to get rid of the vestiges of colonialism including legal discrimination based upon gender. US mainstream political debate features the Equal Rights Amendment, or ERA, which reads in pertinent part "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Over 10,000 Constitutional amendments have been introduced in Congress since 1789. Considering that the Nigerian woman desires to live as free and autonomous human beings, instead of being brutally subjugated as voiceless, caged, domestic animals. I would think they should be guaranteed by their constitution fully equal rights with men. There should be a provision that equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by Nigeria or any of its states on account of sex. The proclamation (resolution 2263(XXII) of 7 November 1967) by UN general assembly declares the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.
A completely unrelated topic, I saw Mr Badejo last night @ the 'Remember Saro-Wiwa Poetry Reading in the Purcell Room, headlined by Soyinka.
"Jeremi da?" - Where is Jeremy? - I asked Mr Badejo.
"Ha, igba ti n maa fi de'le won lo ti jade. Ehn, eni to se hernia!" - By the time I got home they said he'd gone out. Imagine, someone that just did hernia!" - he replied.
"Abi o!" - we both marvelled at our Jeremy.
Sorry, too lazy to log onto my Yahoo! to email you, so I figured I'd let the whole blog eavesdrop on the above recount, since you've already told all about your hernia operation anyhow;-)
Gave Mr Badejo a copy of 'Dance the Guns to Silence' - it's for the poet, OO - to be given to him please, when you get back to that great Mothership - Naija.
Will email further about it later.
For now, happy blogging!
Emi ni tire,
MW
Nigerian constitution here: http://www.nigeria-law.org/ConstitutionOfTheFederalRepublicOfNigeria.htm
What an interesting blog!
The Tanzanian Immigration also states that if a foreign woman marries a Tanzanian she becomes Tanzanian... but worse, If a Tanzanian woman marries a non-Tanzanian she loses her citizenship...EVEN IF SHE IS IN HER OWN COUNTRY AND HAS NEVER LEFT!!!
How's that for waoman's rights!
Post a Comment