Nigeria: Divorcees plan mass protest in Kano
Source:
Daily Trust Many divorcees are expected to attend a mass rally in Kano city organised by the National Association of Divorcees, Widows and the Orphans of Nigeria, to protest the growing divorce rate and "insufficient husbands in Kano State."
Organisers say the rally where "one million" divorced women would come out to the streets against marriage instability was the biggest in the history of Nigeria.
Executive Director of the association, Hajiya Attine Abdullahi, said the rally would hold in a fortnight and is expected to highlight the incidences of divorce and what she called "a growing social problem bedeviling the communities of Kano State."
The executive director, who addressed newsmen shortly after the emergency meeting of the national executive council of the association at the Ministry for Local Govern-ment and Chieftaincy Affairs in Kano, said the decision was necessitated by the inability of the state House of Assembly to initiate laws against the menace. improve the lot of divorcees, but those laws are yet to see the light of day," she lamented.
The rally which was expected to start from the emir's palace would go through the city centre to government house and would terminate at the state House of Assembly, the association said. promulgate laws that would improve the lot of divorcees, but those laws are yet to see the light of the day," she lamented.
The rally which was expected to start from the emir's palace would go through the city centre to the government house and would terminate at the state House of Assembly, the association said.
"We have concluded arrangements to invite one million divorcees only to the city on the 29th of this month where we will stage a rally to protest against the outrageous number of divorcees currently sent out of their matrimonial homes and of which no one is doing anything," she stressed.
The executive director called on the people and those responsible for leadership to be serious about what she called "a serious social problem that has the capacity to impact negatively on the social fabric of any society that chose to neglect it.
"It is this seemingly neglect that we will come out to protest and we hope the rally will equally create awareness on the plight of these mothers as well as draw the attention of the community to this serious social problem that is not viewed with the seriousness it deserves," she said.
Attine explained that women were concerned about the seemingly lack of adequate attention to their plight even though they (women) play significant roles to the development of any society socially, economically, and security wise.
"We hope the rally will not only draw the attention of the leaders, but will also draw the attention of our husbands who should know that the one million divorcees that will be on the street on that day are their failure for keeping their home fronts," she said.
Sunday Trust reports that last year, the Kano State government released a report which showed that over 80 per cent of marriages in the state were unstable.
The report that had the state Ministry of Women Affairs, NGOs, Adaidaita Sahu and others as members found among other things absence of sincerity during courtship, ignorance about the religious status of the marriage institution, economic down turn, working women phenomenon and materialism in marriage as some of the causes of the surge in divorcees rate in the state.
11 January 2009
By: Hassan A Karofi
Source: Daily Trust
