Varsity Don Seeks Laws To Stop Early, Forced Marriages

A Professor of Sociology at University of Abuja, Philomena Ibhade Ozo-Eson, has tasked the government to come up with legislations that would punish perpetrators involved in early child marriages, forced marriages and wife inheritance.

Ozo-Eson made this call in Abuja while delivering the 43rd inaugural lecture of the University titled “Womanhood in Tears: The Yoke Is Not Easy and the Burden Is Heavy.”

She also urged the Nigerian government to enact laws preventing members of the ruling class from sending their children to foreign schools, including Europe and America.

This is just as she called on parents to give equal attention to their children’s education irrespective of the sex, noting that there is need for girl child rights law to be implemented and enforced by all states in Nigeria.

The renowned Professor also emphasised the need for political, socio -economic policies of Nigeria to be geared towards meeting the basic needs of Nigerians, instead of the current stealing and looting of common resources by a few members of the ruling class.

She said, “Nigeria operates a patriarchal social relation that enforces male domination of females. Females and males are both conditioned to a pattern of behaviour that underrated females.

“The inferior status of women in a patriarchal Nigeria is taken for granted and reinforced by the various social institutions. Through these institutions, the females are consciously or unconsciously made to internalise inferiority complexes, through the dehumanising practices against them.

“There is a need to correct this yoke, burden of womanhood. The correction should start from the family, then the educational system and the society at large.”

Earlier, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah said inaugural lectures generally are about human and national values.

He commended the lecturer for being one of the first lecturers that incorporated Virtual learning into their teaching in the institution’s history.