The Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, came under heavy criticism on Tuesday for advocating polygamy on a day womanhood was being cerebrated worldwide.
Ndume, a senator from Borno State, said Nigerian men should be encouraged to take more than one wife. He urged the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to show an example by marrying another wife, a joke many described as expensive.
He made the comments while contributing to a motion presented by Mrs. Remi Tibubu of Lagos Central at the Senate plenary.
Tinubu had urged the Federal Government to do everything possible to rescue the missing Chibok girls and re-unite them with their parents. She also called for adequate security measures to guarantee the safety of schoolchildren, especially girls.
Tinubu also observed, “We have gone to school in the same class and there was no discrimination but when it comes to governance, women are being deprived of working in accordance with what we have learnt in schools.”
Responding to the motion, as reported by @NGRSenate, Ndume urged men to marry more than one wife unless their religion frowned at the practice.
“As a sign of respect and love for women, I urge all men, unless their religion prohibits it, to marry more than one wife,” he was quoted as saying.
The lawmaker urged men to, apart from being friends to the female folks, marry and take care of them. He argued that there was nothing wrong in marrying more than a wife.
Although Ndume’s prayer was turned down by the upper chamber, it was seconded by Sulaiman Nazif, a colleague from Bauchi State.
Soon after his remarks, snapshots of the tweets posted by the Senate on its Twitter handle went viral. Thousands of social media users tongue-lashed the senator who they accused of reducing the hallow chamber to a beer joint.
Binta Garba, who represents Adamawa North, promptly responded to his statement, saying women were not “sex objects.” She rather urged men to respect and celebrate women.
Reacting to Ndume’s comments on Twitter, Bamgbose Adegbuyi, an online activist, wondered why marrying more than one wife should be a matter for legislative deliberation.
“Someone needs to educate Ndume better. Marrying more than one wife is a choice and should not be a matter for legislation,” he tweeted.
Ndume had, on Friday, been challenged on social media when he told the nation that members of the Senate were “too important” to be conveyed in a bus. He was defending the Senate’s plan to spend N4.7bn on official cars.
This is not the first time a member of the Senate would be berated for making uncomplimentary remarks on women.
Last week, Dino Malaye, a member representing Kogi West, was criticised for treating women as commodities. While speaking on a motion on encouraging local industries, he advised Nigerian men to shun the path of Gov. Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, whose wife is from Cape Verde, and “patronise made-in-Nigeria women.”
Shehu Sani of Kaduna State also faced a similar online backlash when he declared his two wives as part of his assets last year.
Across social media platforms, however, the International Women’s Day trended widely as people in different parts of the world celebrated women and their contributions to global development.
On her social media pages, Olajumoke Orisaguna, the bread seller-turned model who was recently celebrated, wrote, “You may encounter many defeats as a woman, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter defeats so that you will know who you are and how you can come out of it.
“When you lose a couple of times, it makes you to realise how difficult it is to win. One of the most courageous things you can do is to identify yourself. Know who you are, what you believe in and where you want to go.”
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