Speaking when he received a delegation of civil society group under the umbrella of Gender and Constitution Reform Network (GECORN), led by the Minister for Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zainab Maina, in his office, Mark said Senators are not paedophiles.
According to Mark: “My own brothers and sisters who are senators, who were probably blackmailed. That is the fact, because it is in the open that I cannot also hide it and nobody can hide it. They were simply blackmailed, and on that day, if they didn’t do what they did, nobody knows the outcome or how the consequences will be today, because the people outside can say this man, you are Muslim and didn’t vote for something that is of Islamic interest.”
Mark lamented that, “the entire Senate is being castigated because there was and there is still a complete misunderstanding of what the Senate had tried to do.”
Hajiya Saudatu Mahdi, who presented their position paper to Senator Mark, called for the deletion of the section, which they said, indirectly provides that young Nigerian girls who are not old enough to vote or to obtain a driver’s license could be old enough to renounce their citizenship.
She noted that, “It is generally accepted that there is an age where mental capacity is presumed and as such, to provide a basis where girls without this mental capacity can renounce their citizenship not only unfairly discriminates against females but also trivializes this treasure gift.”
