by MOHAMMED HARUNA
In his interview in the Daily Trust of April 29, for example, the senator said in effect he did not care to be judged by Nigeria’s Constitution and laws that he once swore as governor, and now as senator, to uphold. “Whatever the Qur’an and the hadith of the Holy Prophet authorizes,” he said, “I try my best to live up to it. Whatever they forbid I try my best not to do it. These are the guiding rules of my life. So if anyone decides to judge me according to rules other than those prescribed by Allah and the Holy Prophet, then he is wasting his time, because they are not my guiding principles.”
The senator said pretty much the same thing in his widely quoted interview with the BBC Hausa Service mid last week.
Technically the senator and his supporters are right that he has not violated any Islamic injunctions in marrying a girl-child. He has denied that she is 13, as has been widely claimed, but he would not say how old. Press enquiries about her age at the Egyptian Embassy in Abuja have drawn a blank. Even then it is almost certain that she is below the so-called age of consent – 18.
The Qur’an has a long list of what women a man can marry and what women he can’t. The list does not include girls under 18. Indeed Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) married Ai’sha at the age of seven, some say six, and consummated the marriage at nine.
Daily Trust for more